


Wade in Over His Head

by SkylineStarryEyed



Category: Deadpool - All Media Types, Deadpool - Fandom, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Bottom!Peter, Bottom!Wade, Domestic, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gwen is a bitch, Longing, M/M, Masturbation, Prostitution, Single father!Peter, Slow Burn, Smut, Spideypool - Freeform, Vueyerism, eventually, i guess, sort of, top!Peter, top!wade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2018-05-23 11:26:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 52,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6115010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkylineStarryEyed/pseuds/SkylineStarryEyed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where Peter is a single father who hires Deadpool to kill off his rapist and during the payment they get into some shit together (Rape is never described). Wade is forced to live with Peter and his four year old daughter until everything calms down and he slowly falls in love with Peter and this adorable little girl. Throw in an Ex-Wife who will do anything to keep Peter from seeing Lucy, his daughter, and Peter's less than honorable occupation and you've got a very complicated situation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prelude: A Payment and a Pocketknife

**Author's Note:**

> This is a WIP. Any comments are encouraged, good or bad. I'm new to Spideypool so feel free to leave a tip, hint, or correction. Thanks for reading,

The dim bar lights swayed slightly with each pounding of the floor by some gargantuan body. The fights were nearly constant now since the night had gone on and Wade was about ready to call it a night. Weasel polished glasses with a dingy rag that used to be white and Wade said his goodbyes, pulling on his mask before heading toward the back door. Tonight’s hit had been quite the accomplishment, in Wade’s humble opinion. This was a man twice his size at least, with two buddies who had recently escaped from some kind of circus from the looks of them. Wade had stalked them for days, trying to catch the target on his own and eventually deciding that he was wasting time that could be spent with the money he would earn. He decided to get his shit together, put on his big girl panties, and do it.

And do it he had. Something about that largest motherfucker just screamed ‘disembowel me,’ so Wade did. He opted for a bullet between the eyes for the other two. But the other one, a man who went by Rhino, he took his time. Let him tire himself out by smashing up the hotel room. This had earned wade three broken ribs, but nothing he couldn’t heal. One the rhino-fucker was heaving and panting, Wade ran him through with one Katana and set to carving it back out with the other. Good times.

Wade neared the back exit, jumping up over an unconscious man who had to have a fractured skull at least. Just as he made it to the door someone threw it open from the other side. Wade jumped back, dodging the door with ease and raising his dominant arm up to the hilt of his sword. If there was going to be a fight tonight he wanted first choice. Instead he was met with the glowing brown eyes of a man who couldn’t be more than 25. He wasn’t short, but his small, lean frame lent a feeling of fragility to him. It didn’t help that the rest of him was borderline angelic. His large, dark eyes were rimmed in thick lashes and slight circles from lack of sleep. His long hair was a soft blonde color that had to have come from a bottle, and wavy-curly in the messiest way. He was so perfect. Wade wanted to fuck him against a wall while the whole bar watched. 

“Deadpool?” he asked, brown doe eyes locking on Wade’s. For a moment he felt as if his mask were gone and this boy was staring right through him.

“That’s me.” He said quickly, sucking air into his chest. He felt as if the Rhino were sitting on his ribs. “I didn’t order a twink.” He announced. “You guys! My birthday isn’t for another month! You shouldn’t have.”

“I owe you money.” The smaller man said. “My name is-“

“Whoa!” Wade interrupted. “You may not want to announce your name in a place like this. That is, not without reciting your social security number as well. These are hardworking criminals, but not exactly masterminds, so throw them a bone.” The man looked around the bar for a moment, nodding his head sharply before turning his eyes back to Wade.

“Fine. Can we go somewhere private?” He asked. Before Wade could answer (we’re talking nanoseconds, here) a man stood up from the bar and approached them. 

“I know you!” He said, jabbing his huge finger into the stranger’s chest. “I used to see you out of the corner of 83rd! Ooh, you were a pretty thing.” He loomed over them both, elbowing Wade with his last comment. “Feisty, though. Sure put up a fight when I tried to take you home.” 

“You were drunk, and broke, and you still smell like a homeless shelter for dogs.” The stranger shot back. 

“You ain't gonna use that pretty little mouth to say such nasty things, boy. I’ll find a better use for it.” The hulk of a man retorted. 

“Whoa!” Wade cut in. “Boys, boys... First I would like to address the room by saying, kudos to you for not judging an openly gay criminal like this, which really shows growth as a society. Secondly, Goliath, this pretty little mouth owes me money, so you’re not sticking anything into it before I get a check. Especially not something that could likely kill a man.” He held his hands up about two feet apart. “Get it?”

“He can’t afford it anyway.” The stranger said, sneering in Goliath’s direction. That set him over the edge. One enormous hand swept across the space between them, past Wade’s chest, and wrapped itself around the stranger before he could retreat. Wade shot himself up into the air and came down on the man’s arm, trying his best to pry the fingers off before they crushed the stranger. 

“Time out!” Wade screamed. “Huddle up! Yellow card!” but no matter how hard he pulled he couldn’t free the man. This stranger didn’t need much help for the moment, however. He reached his free hand into a back pocket and pulled out a pocket knife, flicking it open with one hand. He then sank the three inch blade into the wrist of his attacker with no hesitation. The man howled as blood sprayed up like a fountain and Wade was thrown from his arm. Wade took those three seconds to grab the man’s other arm and snatch open the back door. 

“Deadpool!” The stranger said. “You get me home safely and I’ll double what I owe you.” 

“You got it, baby boy.”


	2. Break-Ins and Breakfast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wade and Peter get to know each other as Wade worms himself into Peter's life. Why does no one question it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter should have a bit of smut. For now, I'm going to bed. I got a few comments on the first installment and so I decided to go ahead and write this! Enjoy.

“Nice place you got here. You pay for all of this by getting it up the butt? That’s impressive.” Wade whistled through his mask as he entered the apartment behind the stranger. It was nice for a New York apartment that far off the city. They stood in between a small kitchen and a living area, both of which were clean and organized. To the left was a hallway, Wade crossed the room to look down it and found three doors. 

“What’s behind door number one?” He asked, skipping toward the hallway, only to have his wrist snatched by the smaller man. 

“None of your business.” He said. Wade found himself admiring the boy’s teeth. So white and straight…

“Is it your Red Room?” Wade asked. He pretended to struggle in the man’s grasp. “Be gentle with me, Mr. Gray.” He breathed. The man’s face turned a delightful shade of pink that Wade wanted to follow with his mouth down the man’s throat and across his chest. 

“My name is Peter.” He said, dropping Wade’s arm. “And I believe I owe you some money.”

“This is the part where you say you don’t have what you owe me and lift up your little plaid skirt to show me your ass, isn’t it?” Wade asked. “I love this part.” The pink returned to Peter’s face and Wade found himself a little hot under the collar. 

“No.” Peter said.

“A lot of people take that part for granted, but I think if we all were to ask ourselves ‘why is the copy machine broken?’ or ‘who orders a pizza when they can’t afford one?’ then we can find the answers to some even deeper questions.”

“Do you ever shut up?” Peter asked. 

“Shutting up doesn’t get you cool nicknames.” Wade shot back. “Now, driving knives into people’s hands twenty seconds after meeting them, that does earn some pretty good nicknames, I just need a minute to think of one.” Wade crossed to the couch and flopped himself over the back of it, his legs sticking up in the air and his back bent into a capital L. Peter opened his mouth to shoo him off the couch but thought better of it and Wade wiggled a bit to get comfy. 

“I have most of what I owe you, but the rest will have to be in installments.” Peter said, crossing the apartment to one of the doors and pausing. “Thank you for getting me out of there. I shot my mouth off when I shouldn’t have and if you hadn’t stepped in… Well, you did. Thanks.” He then ducked into his room, leaving Wade upside down on his couch.

After they burst out of the back door of the bar, Wade took a hard left out onto the street. It being close to two a.m. there was no one out but the two of them and the angry mob following. It turns out that Goliath had a bit of a posse and they were not pleased with Peter’s behavior at all. Wade reached behind himself to snatch Peter’s elbow and force him to run faster and faster until they had made it two more blocks. The sound of boots on pavement was still steadily behind them so they ducked into an alley and up a fire escape. From there it was all rooftop jumping until they couldn’t see their pursuers. 

The invitation to come back to Peter’s apartment was extended when Peter realized Wade had been gashed by part of the fire escape. The cut was about eight inches long across his right ribcage and along his back and despite multiple explanations and one Roadhouse reference (“Pain don’t hurt.” –Patrick Swayze) Peter insisted. So, here he was, lying on a blue couch in a very clean apartment, staring at a framed photo of a child who was maybe three years old. Peter’s hair was dark in this photo and short. The girl would be older now. Wade found himself comparing Photo Peter to Real Peter. He liked the dark hair better. 

As if on cue, Peter reappeared, holding a small green box with a padlock on it. He sat down in the chair opposite of Wade and counted out by the hundreds. Wade kicked his feet, which were still in the air, and waited. After approximately ten seconds, Wade couldn’t take it anymore. He flipped himself upright, taking out a vase with one of his feet and started to do what he was best at; talk.

“Who’s the kid?” He asked, pointing to the shelf next to the tv. Peter didn’t look up, but his eyes darkened a bit. 

“Lucy.” He said. “My daughter.” He continued counting bills. Wade folded his hands in his lap, on his mock best behavior. 

“Your hair is dark there.” He said. “It’s hot.” Peter’s face flushed again, but he ignored Wade. Finally Wade remembered a question he always likes to ask.

“Who did I kill today?” He asked as simply as if he were wondering about the weather forecast. Peter stopped what he was doing and looked up at Wade, his jaw was tight and his brow furrowed. After a moment of intense focus, he sighed.

“He goes by Rhino.” Peter began. “He’s a friend of a former employee. I used to work for low lifes like him until I realized that I could do better for myself. Now I work for a company, and underground company, but still. I don’t stand out on the street being catcalled by people who can’t afford it or don’t care to buy any time together. My former employee caught wind of me working as an escort and sent Rhino out to fuck me up.” He hesitated here, bills in his slightly clenched hands shaking. “Rhino met up with me as planned, got me alone, and then he raped me. Got the whole thing on tape for my old boss. Then he left me bound in that hotel room. When Housekeeping found me, the cops were called and I was convicted of solicitation instead of him being convicted for what he did. Now my ex-wife is using my conviction to keep Lucy from me… I just needed a little justice. I did two years in prison for being raped and my daughter is about to be five.” 

“Whoa…” Wade whistled. “That’s some shit… Want to see pictures of his guts on the walls?” Peter actually cracked a smile. 

“I’m good.” He held out a fistful of bills. “Here. What I owed you before plus a little of my new charge.” Wade took the money and tucked it into his shirt as if his suit didn’t have 800 pockets on it. He started to tell peter not to worry about the rest but the idea of not seeing him again made Wade a little sad. Instead he limped to the door and let himself out, patting himself on the back for doing his civic duty today by killing that motherfucker. Rapists are the lowest of the low in Wade’s book. And he has seen some low down shit. 

Back across town his night continued to get better and better. The lock on his door was busted in. One of those fuckers from the bar knew where he lived. His apartment was ransacked and most of his weapons were stolen. Carved into the floor right in front of the door was “Sorry we missed you.” The knife had been left poking out of the hardwood and Wade recognized it as the one Peter had left at the bar. 

 

O O O O

 

Hello Kitty bag in tow, Wade let himself through the window and off the cold metal of the fire escape. He knew this was the right apartment, but he was surprised at what he was looking at. Everything was pink. The walls were painted a pastel shade of pink and a large throw rug took of most of the room with its vibrant shade. A twin bed with My Little Pony sheets was tucked against a wall next to a bookshelf filled with children’s books. There was a desk with a tiny pink computer chair and several toys on top of it. Overall this was every little girl’s princess dream room. 

Wade dropped his bag onto the floor and stretched. His suit was caked with blood, but he had a repair kit with him and some spare clothes. He considered changing out of his suit, but decided it was best not to. Instead he climbed into the tiny twin bed and rolled his mask up so he could breathe more comfortably. After kicking a few stuffed animals off the bed, Wade drifted off and fell asleep. 

Hours had to have gone by, but it felt like minutes when Wade heard a shout from the open doorway. He reached up to cover his mouth in a yawn and yank the mask back down over his chin. Stretching out his arms he rolled to the edge of the bed and put his feet on the floor.

“Good morning, Dad.” He said. “I slept well, how about you?” He asked, looking up at peter through the white eyes of his mask. Peter raged silently for a moment before his shoulders dropped back down. Wade got out of the bed and stepped over a stuffed frog to get to the door. In passing he ducked his head and kissed Peter on the cheek. 

“I always love a sleepover.” He said, going to the pantry and finding a box of pancake mix. He tossed a pan onto the stove and turned on the heat, getting to work. “Of course, the Barbie House of Horrors was a bit much, but don’t worry. I went out like a light. Did I snore? Oh, I hope I didn’t keep you up. I know how hard it can be to suck a dick when you haven’t gotten proper rest the night before!” Peter staggered down the hall and sat down at the table. 

“Why?” he croaked. Wade took a moment to notice his adorable morning voice. 

“Well, I just missed you so much that when I got home to my destroyed apartment I thought, ‘I could stay here and get murdered in my sleep, or I could go see Petey.’ And you know what I did? I just packed a bag and headed back down here.”

“Destroyed apartment?” Peter asked.

“Death threat carved into the floor and all. Oh.” He dug into his pocket and pulled out the knife, tossing it to Peter. “This is yours, I think. How kind of them to return it. How many pancakes do you want?” 

“They did this because of me?” Peter said in a hushed tone.

“You look like a boy with an appetite.” Wade went on. Peter shook his head. 

“What will you do?” He asked. Wade shrugged, pouring batter onto the pan. 

“Find a new apartment?” He suggested. 

“Until then?”

“Sleep my way through New York. Couch surfing isn’t free anymore, you know. But I know how to pay with my body.” 

“Stay here.” Peter said. Their verbal tennis game and Wade’s pelvic thrusting halted. Wade stared at Peter through his mask, flipping a pancake without looking. “My daughter comes every other weekend and stays Friday to Sunday. If you can be out of the house while she’s here… why not? I owe you.”

“So, instead of paying me, you’ll let me sleep here? Me?” Wade asked. “I kill people for a living, you don’t know what I look like under here, and you want to move in together?” 

“Don’t forget that you never shut the fuck up.” Peter added. 

“That too… Fine. Yeah.” Wade said. “For a while any way.” 

The rest of the morning was spent converting the small room Peter used as a study into a living area for Wade. The bookshelves were moved to the corners and a sleeping bag was laid out on top of an air mattress. His bag was tossed in and that was it. 

“Deadpool’s room.” Peter said, Standing in the doorway. Wade looked him over, totally in awe of this man and his ability to trust someone he paid to commit murder. 

“Wade.” He said. Peter looked up at him. “My name is Wade.” The slightest blush creeped across Peter’s face and Wade wasn’t sure what to make of it. 

“Peter Parker.” Peter said. “Try not to kill me while I sleep, okay?” 

“Just hope your name doesn’t get handed to me.” Wade joked. A moment passed and Wade couldn’t help himself. “Why do you trust me?” He asked. Peter’s face grew a darker shade of red, like he had been waiting on that question. 

“I don’t know. Call it an extra sense. I just do.” He replied. Wade realized that the room was fairly cramped and they stood less than two feet from one another. Suddenly the air grew thicker and each man began to realize how easy it would be to shut that door and spend the rest of the day locked in that room. A montage of sex positions passed through Wade’s mind.

“As far as room service goes…” Wade said.

“No prostitute jokes.” Peter replied. Peter took the first step forward. So close their noses were nearly touching. Wade realized Peter was still wearing pajamas pants and nothing else. He felt that same animal attraction that had first gripped him when he met Peter. Peter leaned up to kiss Wade and for a moment Wade was going to let him. That is until he felt the cool air and Peter’s cold fingers on his neck. The mask lifted less than an inch, but it was all Wade needed to remind himself what part of the world he belonged to a where a young, single father, with soft brown eyes belonged. He grabbed Peter’s hands a bit too roughly and pulled them from his mask before leaving the room without a word.

He snatched the paper off the table and started looking through it to find an apartment. The sooner he got out of here, the better. Wade could honestly live the rest of his life without Peter having to be exposed to the freak show that was his face. He didn’t think he could take it.


	3. Footpool and Fire Escapes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wade does a bad thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is explicit, though it takes a while to get there. If you are under 18, please do not read this chapter or any of the following chapters.

The next two days passed without anything noteworthy happening. Wade looked for apartments while Peter milled around the apartment, disappearing each night at around six o’clock to meet a John. Wade realized this of course, he just didn’t feel the need to talk about it. Had Peter known him better he would have understood that the absence of a quip or sarcastic remark about it meant that it bothered Wade, but Peter had only just met him. 

Their moment, however sexually charged, had gone without much comment. Peter followed Wade into the living room and muttered an apology which Wade ignored. Neither man wanted to admit what had nearly gone down in that room. Again, Wade benefited from Peter’s lack of familiarity with him. Had it been purely sexual, Wade wouldn’t have stopped. He would have fucked Peter right there against the doorway until they were both moaning loudly enough to turn on the neighbors. He would have done it with his mask on, too. But it hadn’t been the animal lust that Wade needed it to be. Instead it was intimate. The look in Peter’s eyes had been soft and longing and Wade knew before Peter lifted a finger that he would go for the mask. Figuratively and literally. 

So Wade shut that shit down. Because it needed to be shut down. 

Yesterday Wade had noticed a small dry erase board magnetized to the refrigerator. On it was a half rubbed off address and a time. Wade searched for the markers and found them in a drawer next to the sink. With the three colors at hand—pink, blue, and red—he had drawn himself. It was an artistic vision, he thought. The blue had to replace black so it wasn’t exactly accurate, but it was still just as impressive. Peter disagreed. He argued that the phallus taking up the majority of the panel was “disturbing and most likely inaccurate.” Wade offered to prove its accuracy and a familiar thickness came about the room.

“What’s the board for?” Wade asked, breaking the silence. “Shopping lists? Sex toys? A sex toy shopping list?”

“None of those things.” Peter responded, rolling his eyes.

“Are the sex toys provided or do you pay for those out of pocket?” Wade asked. Peter gave him a withering look but it didn’t stop Wade from grinning. 

“I keep it there for Lucy.” He answered. Wade looked back at the board which contained a very nice drawing of himself, sans dick, and back at Peter.

“She too short to draw on that.” He said.

“It’s not for her to draw on.” Peter responded, as if that were any kind of explanation. Wade squirmed in his clothes. He had finally taken off the suit and changed into jeans and a hoodie. The mask, however, stayed. He had washed it in the sink yesterday during his shower and it hadn’t properly dried. The world smelled vaguely of mildew. 

“Spill!” Wade whined. “What’s the damn white board for? Lucy can’t reach it unless she’s the tallest four year old ever and I haven’t seen any recruitment letters from the WNBA, so what the fuck? How is a white board secretive? What do you put on there, launch codes? The secret to lasting more than four minutes in bed? If so then double spill.”

“Shut up!” Peter exploded. “It’s the addresses to my meet-ups!” Wade blinked at him. 

“Meet ups? You mean your fuck sessions?” He asked.

“After what happened with Rhino, I’m paranoid about the people I’m meeting. If he slipped past the agency, who else could? So I bought that damn white board so I can write down the address and times that I’m meeting Johns and if I turn up dead the cops will find it and solve the case and Lucy can have some closure!” He wouldn’t look at Wade now. 

“So, it’s for Lucy. I get it.” Wade said. “And hey, now that I’m here, I can keep up with the times and maybe we can skip the murder part. At least the you-being-murdered part.” Peter’s eyes flashed to Wade’s face. They were wide and surprised and it hurt Wade that Peter could be so astonished at someone expressing a tiny amount of care.

“I’m not asking you to do that, Wade.” Peter said. 

“But I will, Baby Boy.”

Now a day had gone by and it was nearly nine o’clock at night. The address was there in pink marker along with Deadpool’s head which survived the erasing. Wade noted the time on the board and did the math. Peter had been gone about a half hour too long. Wade paced the apartment. He had looked at two new apartments today, one he couldn’t afford and another one down the street from Sister Margaret’s and dangerously close to his new enemies’ watchful eyes. Now he sat on the couch wearing a long sleeved white shirt and blue plaid pajama pants. He always wore socks around the house and kept his sleeves pulled down over his knuckles. He knew Peter could see his fingers, but there was no avoiding it. If anything it would be a good way to keep Peter from wanting to pull off the mask. He could use his imagination if he was in the mood for a horror show. 

Slowly, Wade reached up and peeled the mask off of his face. The television set was turned off and in it Wade could see his own image in a washed out color. The scars were never as bad as he thought they were, but it still wasn’t pretty. Every inch of his skin was pockmarked and torn up in the worst way. It was shiny and pink and frankly hard to look at. But it had been years since the mutation had first marred his skin and he still hadn’t gotten used to it. Vanessa…. He didn’t want to think of her. He harbored so much guilt for everything that had happened and maybe that was why his appearance kept him bottled up so tightly. 

He propped his feet up on the coffee table and settled his mask down on his left foot so the eye holes faced him. 

“Footpool,” he began. “Why do I hate myself so much?”

“Well,” he started in a high pitched voice. “Probably because you’re a huge douchebag with a body count higher than a normal person could understand.” He moved his foot side to side to give Footpool some animation.

“Yeah, that’s not it. I could have let Peter take off my mask.”

“And see your stupid face.”

“Yeah, and see my stupid face.” Wade said to Footpool. “But I didn’t. Why? Had he gotten to Sister Margaret’s ten minutes before he had the other day, I would have been sitting at the bar without my mask.” 

“What would you have done?” Footpool asked. 

“I would have taken his money and made a pass at him.” Wade responded. “Grabbed his ass on the way out.”

“Yes, but then you would have been the one with his Boy Scouts knife sticking out of your arm.” 

“This is true. Worth it, too. I guess what I’m asking is, what makes him different than the hookers I’ve picked up?”

“Aside from the payment and the syphilis? Nothing.” Footpool said. Wade paused to consider this.

“You know, Footpool, talking to you is weird.” He said. “It was weird in ‘Frozen’ when Kristof talked for Sven and it’s weird now.”

“It’s weirder that you watched ‘Frozen.’” Footpool responded. 

“’Let It Go’ changed my life and you're an idiot if it didn’t stir up a sense of rebellion in you as well!” Wade shouted, launching the mask up off of his foot with a kick and effectively killing his new friend. 

“I want to go to this address and check on him.” Wade said out loud. “How gay is that?” Just then he heard Peter’s key in the door and he made a mad dash for his mask, snatching it off the floor and pulling it on as quickly as he could. Peter swung the door open, yawning, and found Wade leaned casually against the kitchen counter with his mask on slightly askew. 

“Where have you been, young man?” Wade asked. “Your father and I have been so worried!” 

“You know where I was, and why are you the mother?” Peter asked.

“Is that a hickey?!” Wade shouted, springing toward Peter and grabbing his shoulders. “You're a sex fiend!” He wailed. “I knew we should have sprung for private school! Those public school children made you into a drug addicted nymphomaniac!”

“Wade, knock it off.” Peter said with false exasperation. The truth was he loved having Wade around. The divorce was final about a week before Lucy was born and for the first two and a half years Peter lived alone. Then he had a cell mate, but the man hardly spoke English. Peter ended up learning quite a bit of Portuguese, but only enough to discover how little in common he had with this man. Now he gets Lucy every two weeks for two days and he was alone the rest of the time. Wade brought life into the place.

“Man or woman?” Wade asked, moving into the kitchen to start a pot of boiling water. Wade had started cooking for Peter some nights to break the monotony of take-out. Peter appreciated the effort, but wished Wade was better at it. It spoke to his character that he ate the meals without a word, good or bad. He knew any comment might make this small domestic gesture end. 

“I can’t tell you.” Peter said. 

“What are you, Doctor Love? There’s no Prostitute/John confidentiality.” Wade argued.

“Yes, but there’s a societal ‘kiss and tell’ law that I just can’t break.” Peter responded. Wade pouted and Peter reveled in the amount of emotion Wade could express through his mask. 

“Please? I want the nitty gritty. What positions? Did you pitch or catch? Based on those hickeys I bet it was a chick.”

“Wade…” Peter rubbed his temples, trying not to smile. 

“Come on!” Wade begged.

“Fine! I will answer three questions, no names or occupations.” Peter conceded. Wade bounced on the balls of his feet, stirring the contents of the pot and thinking. 

“Gender?” He asked after a moment. He turned a box of pasta upside down and into the water. Peter loved spaghetti but Wade didn’t let the noodles get soft enough. His impatience always got the best of him. 

“Female.” Peter answered him calmly. Wade pumped a fist into the air. 

“I knew it!” He celebrated. Pensive again, he shook the salt shaker over the pot and Peter wanted to tell him he was using way too much. “Alright… How long did she take? No! How many rounds?” Wade asked.

“Three orgasms for her,” Peter said. “Four for me.” Wade whistled.

“Why more for you?” Wade asked before throwing his hands up. “Wait! Never mind. That’s not my third question!” He protested. Peter shut his open mouth and smirked. Wade opened a can of pasta sauce and set it aside, thinking.

“When’s the last time you had sex without being paid?” Wade asked. Suddenly Peter’s face fell. His eyes left Wade’s mask and he stared at his own feet.

“That’s not about the John.” Peter countered.

“You didn’t say it had to be about the John.” Wade said. “Or Jane, in this case.” Peter shuffled his feet a bit, clenching his jaw and staring up at the ceiling now. 

“About… Five years?” Peter admitted.

“Let me guess,” Wade said. “Lucy’s birthday, plus nine months?”

“Yeah.” Peter said. A moment of awkwardness went by before Wade found himself rambling about anything that came to mind. Wade continued talking for the next twenty minutes, about television and women and prostitution. Peter ate the bowl of pasta that was put in front of him once Wade was done cooking and then retreated toward his room.

“Peter?” Wade said. “Do you enjoy the sex?” Peter paused outside of his bedroom door. He turned to look at Wade and smirked, but his eyes remained big and brown and sad.

“That’s question number four.” He responded, shutting the door. Wade rolled his mask up to eat, thankful that their evening routine involved Peter going into his room for a half hour or so to let Wade eat. The pasta was sub-par and Wade knew it. He just wanted Peter to have something that didn’t arrive twenty minutes after you order it or it’s free. 

Once he finished he piled the dishes in the sink and went to his own room. He tried to sleep but he kept thinking of Peter and the hickeys. They had branched all over his throat, from his left ear down to the right side of his collarbone. Like a sash for the Miss American Slut pageant. Wade loved it. The dark bruises that may take days to heal… It turned him on. His insomnia only continued the more he thought about how Peter must have gotten those hickeys and the woman he got them from. Was it possible that Peter hated his job? He got to fuck as many people as he wanted, and he got paid for it. Wade found himself curious about the mechanics of it all. How did he know what the John’s wanted? Did they map it all out beforehand or did Peter have a routine like a stripper? A set sequence of moves for each client? 

A thought popped into Wade’s head and it was so terrible and perfect and inappropriate that he knew there was no talking himself out of it. 

O O O O

The night passed without much action, as did the following day. Only today when Peter left for work, Wade donned his full Deadpool suit and followed him. Discretely, of course. Peter walked himself to the nearest Subway station and Wade fought to follow him through the crowd without being detected. He had written down the address Peter left on the board in case they got separated. Once on the train, Wade chose a different car than Peter, but one where he could still see him. 

The plan was not fully formulated yet, but it was growing like fetus in Wade’s brain. That is, slowly and pretty weird. So far Wade knew that he intended to follow Peter to meet his John and hide out somewhere to see the action. Maybe wear a housekeeping uniform and bring them their room service. Wade became distracted by the thought of himself wearing a maid’s dress and nearly missed the stop. Now the hard part; following Peter through the streets of New York while dressed like a bad Times Square superhero. 

He followed closely, but not too close, dodging tourists with their kids but stopping every so often for a photo from someone who had no clue who he was. They passed by four statues of liberty, urging tourists to take photos with them, and one Hello Kitty knock off that looked like something that would be at a birthday party in Hell. Finally Peter ducked into a hotel and Wade followed. He only needed to know what floor Peter was on. Once Peter was on the elevator Wade stepped up to watch the numbers change. It stopped on seven, sixteen, eighteen, and thirty. Wade exited the building and went around to the alley behind it. He climbed all the way up to floor number seven and looked into the window. Nothing. Then up to sixteen. No dice. Finally on eighteen he arrived in time to see Peter removing his jacket and scarf. Wade settled in for the long haul. 

The John arrived five minutes later. Well, the Jane. Wade could see into the room from where he sat on the fire escape, just enough to see the door and the bed. Jane ducked out of sight into the bathroom and Peter turned on some music on his phone. It was classic rock, the kind that Jenson Ackles probably masturbates to. Wade smiled behind his mask. Peter was full of surprises. 

When Jane reemerged from the bathroom she was just in her bra and panties, both of which were a soft pink lace that drastically contrasted with her dark skin. Her hair was long and natural, curling in every direction. She was hot, to say the least. Peter moved across the room and wrapped his arm around her waist, pushing her chest against his. Wade watched her eyes flutter shut as he realized Peter had made a costume change as well. He now wore the tight blue jeans he’d come over in. The coat he wore before had blocked his beautiful backside from the common eye. His black leather boots were still on, but that was it. Her bare skin against his turned her on and she showed this by kissing him with an intensity that Wade could appreciate. Peter deserved to be kissed like that. 

Peter kissed her back and she moaned into it. After a moment of just making out Peter reached down a hand and hitched one of her thighs up over his hip. The crossed to the bed Tango style, never breaking their mouths apart, and sat her down on the edge. 

“How do you want it?” He asked in a surprisingly rough voice. Wade found himself getting hot despite the chilly outside air. He realized the window was slightly cracked so he could hear as well as see the action. 

“Fuck me.” Jane responded. “Don’t talk.” Peter obliged, climbing on top of her on the bed and flattening her body with his. He was more muscular than Wade realized, the muscles of his back contracting as he pressed himself against her. She moaned, throwing back her head and wrapping her legs around his waist. He continued to grind against her while they kissed and Wade felt himself responding to the live show.

“No no no.” he whispered at his own crotch. “Now is not the time! Well, it is the time, but not the place!” Jane moaned louder and Wade glanced back up to see that Peter had fit his hand beneath himself and hooked a finger inside of her panties. 

“Yes!” She exclaimed, rocking herself against him. Peter stopped, pulling his finger out and sitting up on his knees. He pulled Jane up too and unhooked her bra with one hand, tossing it aside. Her breasts were impressive, taking precedence over Peter’s skill for bra-removal. They were round and dark and gorgeous, her nipples already hard against the cold air. Peter cupped one breast in his hand and squeezed, causing her to cry out softly. Then he pushed her back onto her back and lowered his mouth to her nipples. He sucked one while tugging on the other, pulling back every so often to lick around the tight, brown bud. He swapped and gave her other breast the same attention, pulling on the other with fingers slick with saliva. 

Wade’s breathing was coming in huffs now; his skin was burning up despite the cold. He had wanted to see this but he hadn’t anticipated its effect on him. Peter retreated from Jane’s breasts, kissing and licking down her stomach until he got to her panties. He took the waist band between his teeth and pulled up, rubbing the fabric against her most sensitive area. Her mouth opened but no sound came out. Wade could tell she was having the time of her life from her heaving chest. 

Peter slid her panties down her thighs slowly to torture her and then leaned in to nuzzle between her legs. This earned him a gasp and a moan, but it was nothing compared to the sounds she made when he flicked his tongue over her skin. His hands pinned her hips to the bed and his mouth roamed all over her, licking and sucking at her clitoris until she was a squirming, writhing mess. Then he took one hand off her hip and pressed two fingers into her, rocking his arm back and forth to fuck her at the same pace he was licking her. Her breaths came even shorter now and her back was arched up off the mattress. Peter picked up the pace, licking her with more energy now, his head bobbing up and down on beat. His arm pulled back and thrusted forward like a piston and soon she was coming. Wade knew this because she shouted “I’m! I’m!” and then moaned loudly enough that it rattled the pane of the window before falling back onto the bed.

Peter stayed between her legs for a moment, his tongue still moving while she had her aftershocks. Once he stood up, Wade was fully hard and beyond turned on. Peter looked down at Jane who was still breathing heavily and Wade recognized that devilish smirk. 

“Ready for more?” He asked. Wade could see the front of Peter’s jeans tenting and he felt even more blood rush to his own cock. 

“Yes!” She responded, sitting up. Peter unzipped his jeans but Jane stopped him there. “How about, I suck you and when you can’t take it anymore, you can fuck me?” She asked. 

“As much as I would love to come on that gorgeous face,” Peter responded. “Coming in that tight little pussy would be even better.” Jane dropped to her knees like a pro and Peter slid his hand into his pocket for a condom before she pulled his jeans down. His boots slid off and he stepped out of his pants while she pulled his boxer briefs down enough for his cock to spring free. 

“Wow.” Jane said in unison with Wade. He was large to say the least. Not scary big but pretty intimidating. His girth was what impressed Jane and Wade, though.   
“Think you can take it?” Peter asked, tearing open the condom and rolling it onto himself. A wicked grin crossed over Jane’s face and she opened her mouth to lick up the shaft of Peter’s cock. Peter tilted his head back and Jane fit her mouth around the tip, sliding him past her full lips slowly. She opened her mouth again, licking his head before wrapping her mouth back around him.

“Don’t tease me.” Peter said. As if on cue, Jane took him into her mouth inch by inch. She couldn’t seem to fit him to the base, so she wrapped her hand around his remaining length and stroked him in time to the bobbing of her head. Peter hissed air between his teeth and Jane picked up her pace. Wade found himself grinding his hips against the metal grating he sat on, dying to be touched, to have someone’s mouth wrapped around his own cock. Peter’s hands reached down and laced themselves into Jane’s abundant hair. He started to control the pace of her movements, speeding her up significantly and moaning even louder. After a moment of gentle guidance, Jane hummed and Peter seemed to lose himself, pushing in and out of her mouth more forcefully. She loved it, her humming grew louder and more like moans of her own as Peter fucked her face until finally he pulled out.

“I told you not to tease.” Peter said. 

“I should break rules more often.” Jane responded. She grabbed him by the arms and pushed him down onto the bed, pulling his underwear completely off before straddling him between two thick thighs. She lowered herself onto him unceremoniously and started to bounce herself up and down. Peter placed his hands on her breasts, squeezing and running his thumbs across her nipples. She loved this, bouncing harder and faster. 

“Yes!” She cried out. “Fuck me! Fuck me!” Peter wrapped his arm around her waist and flipped her over so that he straddled her without ever pulling out. 

“As you wish.” He said. Wade absolutely couldn’t stand it anymore. He rolled his mask up as Jane’s moaning raised an octave and used his teeth to pull the glove off of his right hand. He used his left hand to free his straining cock from the suit. Turning his head he watched Peter thrusting into this stranger like his life depended on it and he started to stroke himself in time to the thrusts. His cock was about the size of Peter’s but a bit smaller in girth. He pictured himself on his back while Peter pounded into him and felt pre-cum sliding down his length. Peter continued to fuck Jane into oblivion while she moaned and cried out in pleasure, but it was Peter’s grunts of effort that Wade longed to hear. After a moment of rough thrusting Jane started to come for the second time that night and Wade worried for his own health. He had never been this turned on in his entire life. 

“Yes! Yes!” Jane cried out. “Aah! Ah!” her back arched up against, her breasts pressing up against Peter’s chest as she came. Peter wasted no time, waiting until she had settled back down before pulling out of her and removing the condom. He sat up on his knees and started to stroke himself at an incredibly fast pace. Wade bit down on his bottom lip hard enough to taste blood as Peter and he stroked themselves in synch. Wade came first, muffling his voice with his free hand as he shot ejaculate across the metal fire escape. He took a moment to be thankful for the dark alleyway before looking back in time to see Peter finish all over Jane’s chest and stomach. As impressive as his dick was, Wade was fixated on the sheer amount of come he pumped out and over Jane’s breasts. Peter collapsed on Jane and all three of them tried to catch their breath.

Wade pulled his underwear and pants back up and replaced his glove. This was the raunchiest thing he had down in a while, masturbating on a fire escape while watching his roommate get it on like it was a business contract. He reached up and pulled down his mask, and stood, moving so he was not in sight through the window. 

“That was amazing.” Jane said. 

“Messy.” Peter responded.

“Shower?”

“It’s your time.” Peter said. They went into the bathroom together and Wade couldn’t help but peek back through to see Peter’s ass. He couldn’t see into the bathroom, and he wasn’t sure if he would be welcome to join them, so instead he decided to beat Peter home by a good half hour. 

Back at the apartment and on the couch Wade stared at Footpool once more.

“This has certainly been a revealing night.” Footpool said. 

“Yes it has,” Wade responded. He had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that wasn’t sexually driven and he couldn’t quite grasp it. “I think I have feelings for Peter. Like… Jealousy? Jealous of that client?” 

“I meant that Peter is hung.” Footpool said.

“Yeah man… That too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good lord, I judge myself so hard for this. Please feel free to comment and leave a reaction, I love to hear your opinions. Unfortunately I'll be out of town for a while so the next update is at least a week away, but this one is extra long. Hope you enjoyed it.


	4. Brown Dye and Boundaries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wade sneaks off to see Peter in action for a second time, but he doesn't get a happy ending. Instead he and Peter learn more about each other and grow a little closer. Also, introducing: Lucy Parker!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I accidentally wrote a ton this time. I'm proud of where it's going, but I promise I didn't mean to drop a novel on you all!

Seeing Peter again was awkward. Wade was in the kitchen when he returned at around ten o’clock. When he heard keys in the door and jammed his mask back over his triple fucked avocado face, he was glad Peter couldn’t see the pink tinge on his cheeks. Peter crossed the room like nothing was wrong and grabbed one of the two bologna sandwiches sitting on the counter. He bit into it and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was free of squashed tater tots, funyons, or hot sauce. Wade was getting better at his night time meals. They sat together at the bar in the kitchen and Wade began to feel more and more guilty. He had seen Peter in a moment that Peter assumed was private and Peter didn’t even know it. His sandwich sat on his plate, untouched. Peter knew that it was Wade’s turn to talk for a while as he ate and then when Peter went to bed, the taller man would eat his own dinner and order cable porn. It was their routine. 

However, guilt ate away at Wade’s belly like a swig of acid, licking up his insides with hot fingers and prodding him forward. He babbled about this and that, told Peter about the movie he had watched that morning until finally the burning in his stomach was too much. This is a man who has killed his fair share of people. He would say a ton, if he could figure up how many people were in a ton. So instead he says a lot. The real number was lost to him. But somehow invading Peter’s privacy the way he had that night and especially the part where he got off to Peter getting someone else off was worse than any hit so far. Wade decided that Peter deserved some give for his take. He thought that Peter should get to invade his privacy too, but short of walking in on him in the shower, which would be hard to orchestrate, he only had one option. Wade rolled his mask up so that his mouth was exposed. He tried not to look at Peter; the reaction could break him. Instead he picked up his sandwich (this one had Doritos and dill relish) and took a bite. 

It was as if he had called Peter’s name. The smaller man turned his head at Wade’s sudden silence and froze there; staring at the inch of skin he could see. Wade felt as if he were on fire, a feeling he knew well since he had been set on fire in his lifetime. This was worse than that. Peter’s big brown eyes were locked on that line of jaw and chin and thin lips. Finally after what seemed like eternity, Peter cleared his throat and turned away. 

“Shit, I’m sorry.” He stammered. “I just didn’t notice you do it and I kind of thought I was seeing things.”

“That bad?” Wade asked, feeling like he was being crushed by the anxiety in his chest. 

“No! That’s not what I meant, it’s just that… I don’t know… It’s not as bad as you made it seem. The other day when…” They both thought back to that moment in the doorway and Peter’s ears turned the slightest shade pinker. “I thought at first you just didn’t trust me with your identity, but you told me your name and you live here. So then I realized that your face must be burned like your hands. It’s not as bad as I imagined it, is what I mean.”

“Thanks.” Wade said dryly. Peter threw his hands up in frustration as Wade took another bite.

“I wasn’t trying to be rude! I just meant that you made it seem worse than it is.” Peter said. It was obvious that he was mad at himself for insulting Wade.

“This isn’t even all of it.” Wade reminded him. Peter got up and put his plate in the sink, running a bit of water before turning and crossing to his door.

“I’m sorry I said anything.” Peter said. “I was happy you trusted me.” And with that, he closed the door. Wade would never admit it, but that reaction wasn’t the worst thing ever. Peter hadn’t shouted or anything. He even seemed to mean it when he said it wasn’t that bad. Wade was proud of himself for doing it, and for settling the score. But as for the stalking/surveillance/voyeuristic masturbating?

It wasn’t supposed to become a habit, but it did. Wade managed to restrain himself the next three nights, which was impressive in his book, but when he saw a bag sitting on the kitchen table with a hot pink stiletto heel poking out of it, he had to see this one. The night after his original following of Peter, it took an amazing amount of effort not to do it again. Wade spent the night pacing and refusing to look at the refrigerator. The next night was even harder than that. Peter came home wearing a suit with the tie loosened and Wade was forced to excuse himself from the room to handling a rising situation. The night after that was the hardest by far. Peter was gone for four hours. The board said that was normal but Wade was volleying back and forth between worry and curiosity so hard that he had to take his mind off of it. When peter arrived that day he looked like his normal self, but as he marched back to his room Wade saw the ends of a whip hanging out of his backpack. He abandoned his macaroni art to go to bed early. The next day when he got back up Peter had hung Wade’s time-killer on the refrigerator. 

But this night Wade knew that he would be following Peter. The shoe sang to him from the bag. Wade briefly considered that Peter may be providing the costume for his John, but the risk of missing Peter in candy pink heels was not one Wade was willing to take. Upon further investigation Wade found a small bag containing makeup. And the skirt of what seemed to be a very sexy dress. He resolved himself, deciding that he would eat with his mask rolled up again. After all, seeing Peter in the act was the equivalent to exposing his greatest insecurity, wasn’t it? 

So again Wade donned his Deadpool suit and set out about ten minutes after Peter. This was an apartment and Wade knew the area, so he didn’t have to follow so closely. Peter hailed a cab this time and Wade followed suit, giving the cabby the address and telling him to take his time getting there. When they arrived he tossed his money over the seat at the man and hopped out, buzzing with excitement. It was later in the day this time, about eight o’clock and already dark out. Wade went around the building, drawing out the floor plan in his head. 

“3C should be against the back wall.” He said out loud. He rounded the building and found that there was no fire escape on this side of the building, but there was a small balcony and a drain pipe. Wade made good time on climbing up the pipe and onto the third story balcony. The glass doors were too exposed, but if he stood on the balcony railing he could see in through a large window to the right of the door. There was a man inside, wearing a button up shirt and slacks. His shirt was open, exposing his tank top underneath. He was fairly thin but tall with dark black hair and a small spot of hair beneath his bottom lip. He looked like a lawyer. 

Wade used his fingertips to pop the window open an inch as quietly as he could. He could now hear the tapping of the man’s feet on the hardwood floor. The man paced around for a while before crossing to a door Wade could barely see. He knocked and called out; “You okay in there?” to which Peter responded. Wade recognized his voice. The john crossed back to his bed and sat down with his face in his hands. 

“I’ve never done this before.” He said.

“Well, look at you, knowing what you want.” Peter responded, coming out into the bedroom. Wade nearly fell off the balcony. He felt his knees go weak with surprise and lust. Peter was stunning. There were the bright pink heels, platform stilettos with an open toe, and Wade was astonished to see that Peter had painted his toenails a deep purple. The dress he wore was solid black with a low cut neckline and cap sleeves. More importantly it was tight enough to show the girlish curve of Peter’s waist and the size of his ass. Peter had on a wrist full of bracelets on one arm and a chunky silver necklace with bright pink stones, and his makeup was astonishing. Wade couldn’t believe Peter had managed that in the little amount of time he had. Most notable was the red lipstick; Wade had never noticed how full Peter’s lips were before now. 

The John got to work fast, crossing over to Peter and wrapping an arm around his waist, pulling him close. Peter let out a soft “oh!” and was soon being crushed against the mouth of his John. They took a few clumsy steps back to the bed and Peter threw the John down onto it before dropping to his knees. He grabbed at the John’s belt and pulled open his pants, shimmying them down the man’s legs. Wade couldn’t believe how quickly he was being turned on by all of this. By the time Peter freed John’s cock Wade was already halfway hard. John on the other hand was fully hard and already grunting in anticipation. 

Peter looked up at the man through thick lashed, his mouth in a surprised O shape. “You’re so big!” he said in wonder. He then wrapped his mouth around the man and took him in all at once. John groaned and bucked his hips up, trying to feel more of Peter and Peter took it like a champ. He bobbed his head and licked up the shaft of his John’s dick, sucking and licking him until the man was a writhing mess. Finally John couldn’t take it anymore. He pulled Peter away from him and stood up, stepping out of his pants and underwear and shedding his shirt. Peter stood with him only to be turned around and forced on his elbows on the bed. His feet were still on the ground in those ridiculous heels, but he was parallel to the mattress. 

“Have you got a condom?” Peter asked. 

“Shit, no. Do I need one?” John said. Peter turned to look at his over his shoulder, giving him a stare that could wilt a plant.

“You do if you want to take this ass.” Peter responded. “There’s one in my bag.” The john crossed to get it, his cock bobbing comically. “And lube!” Peter added. The John returned and took his stance back at Peter’s ass, rolling a condom down over himself and then squirting a bit of lube onto his fingers.

“You ready?” He asked. Peter gave a soft reply and John pressed a finger up and under Peter’s skirt, pushing into his ass. Peter moaned in response and the John started to fuck him back and forth with that finger before pulling out and adding another one. Apparently, Peter didn’t need much prep because John pulled out again and this time replaced his fingers with the end of his dick. 

“Yes!” Peter cried out as John slid into him, pulling back on Peter’s hips until he was fully seated against John’s hips. Wade made a soft mewling sound. It was odd to watch Peter get fucked by this stranger. That same feeling of want and jealousy mingling in his guts came back. He wanted to be beneath Peter and he wouldn’t mind if Peter were in a dress. The jealous tinge was what made him so confused with himself. He had barely known the man a week, why should he care who he fucks for money? And even so, sex work is not intimate; it’s the same as painting a portrait of someone. You spend hours looking at their face but in the end, you don’t care if they get hit by a bus as long as their check clears.  
Peter and John froze and Wade’s breath caught in his throat. They had heard him. Surely they would just keep going, right? Wrong. John pulled out of Peter’s (sweet, sweet) ass and approached the glass door. In his haste to escape, Wade missed the pipe completely and took a leap of faith off the balcony. He heard the crunch of his leg as soon as he hit the ground, but he was smart enough to keep moving. He rolled under the porch and lay there in the dirt, listening for anything that would indicate him being caught. After about ten minutes of excruciating pain in his left leg, he crawled out from under the porch and made his way home.

O O O O

When he arrived back at the apartment his leg had mostly healed. It was still hard to hobble around on it, but for the most part, he was fine. He approached the door and found a note taped up to it. It was an envelope with the words “Almost had you” scrawled on in highlighter. Wade was fairly used to threats, so he snatched it down off the door and went inside. He opened the envelope and was surprised to find three photos inside, and not of him. The photos appeared to be taken from a skylight of a building and all three were of Peter. Wade recognized his shock of curly blonde hair and his amazing ass. 

In the first photo, Peter was on his back with a woman sitting on his face. Peter’s face was obscured by a thigh, but his hair and build made it obvious who he was. The second picture he had flipped the woman over but he still had his head between her thighs. And in the third he was in missionary position, his face hidden by his own posture. On the back of one photo were the words “I’ll get you next time.” 

Wade found the whole thing unsettling. He paced around for a while wondering who he would murder for this. As Peter’s arrival approached Wade set about cooking. He made five grilled cheese sandwiches, remembering at the last second to only add pepperoni and oyster crackers to his own. When Peter got home Wade was sitting at the bar with his mask rolled up over his mouth, eating. 

Peter came in and shut the door, going about his business as usual before he finally noticed Wade and stopped dead in his tracks. He had removed his makeup and had on his street clothes again, but Wade could still see a bit of eye liner. Peter approached him slowly, as if not to startle him and lifted one hand very gently to press his fingertips against the skin of Wade’s jaw. Wade froze, his eyes shut, sandwich halfway lifted for another bite and Peter drew his hand across Wade’s jaw and to the neckline of his suit. He opened his mouth to speak but Wade couldn’t bear to hear it so he interrupted.

“You got mail.” He blurted out. Peter kept his fingers against Wade’s skin, reluctant to pull away. “Found it when I got home today. Taped to the door. I thought it was for me, so I opened it. Sorry.”

“Why are you afraid?” Peter asked, but Wade was already starting in on the photos. 

“It’s creepy if you ask me, whatever it is.” He said as Peter pulled away. Wade immediately missed his touch after the initial wave of relief. “Who the fuck would do this? Climb up onto a skylight to photograph you?” This got Peter’s attention.

“Shit! Again?” He fumed, going to the table and snatching up the envelope. He flipped through them angrily, going through several times and scrutinizing. Wade took another bite of his sandwich and tried not to look as interested as he was.

“Yeah, you’ve got a wackadoo on your hands.” He said. “Fortunately you know someone who can help with that issue. For the low low price of a shit ton of money, you can have a dead guy too! I’ll work on the commercial, that’s not quite up to par.” 

“You said you opened this?” Peter asked. 

“I did, and while I know that it was an invasion of privacy, that sweet ass was well worth it.” Wade said. “I mean, how much would you charge for a squeeze? No! A slap! How much would I have to shell out to just spank you for a few minutes?” Peter’s face flamed red and he cleared his throat. Wade knew that they both had some sort of feelings for one another, but he couldn’t resist flirting. “Ballpark it.” He added. 

“This is just like her!” Peter said, throwing the photos down and marching away from the kitchen.

“Just like who?” Wade asked. “And I’m still waiting for a price quote.” He hopped up and followed Peter who had ducked into the bathroom and was now banging around in the cabinet under the sink. 

“Gwen.” Peter responded. Wade waited for him to shed some more light on the response, but instead he came up from the cabinet with a box full of bottles, a glass bowl, and some other random items. 

“Who is Gwen?” Wade prodded. “A rival prostitute?”

“Sex worker.” Peter corrected. “And no. Gwen is Lucy’s mother. My ex-wife.” He rummaged around in the basket for a moment, getting more and more frustrated. Wade could smell chemicals wafting up from the basket.

“She took those photos?” He asked.

“She hired someone to, I’m sure.” Peter responded. He continued to search around before losing his temper. “Dammit all!” He shouted, bracing his hands on the sink and taking a few deep breaths to steady himself. Wade reached into the basket and pulled out a random bottle. It read “Mystic Red.” 

“Hair dye?” He asked.

“Yes.” Peter said through his teeth. “Every so often I get photos like these taped up to my door that don’t have my face in them and I know Gwen is that much closer to taking Lucy away from me forever. So I dye my hair in an attempt to distance myself from how I look in the pictures. Without my face, they won’t hold up in court but I'm still scared that she’ll push them through somehow. In the last year I have dyed my hair black, red, blue, auburn, and now blonde.”

“You really should be careful with how much you dye it, soon it will start falling out and then you’ll be bald.” Wade chided in a joking tone. Peter looked at him for a minute before he started laughing his ass off. It was a kind of belly laugh that Wade hadn’t heard him ever use before. It was enough to get Wade laughing too. The two men stood in the tiny bathroom, giggling like children for a solid five minutes until Peter was grasping at his stomach.

“It hurts!” He said laughingly. Wade sobered up first, noticing that Peter’s hand was on his shoulder. It took him a moment to find words to remove himself from the situation. The attraction here was physical and everything else it could be as well. 

“Brown.” Wade said. “Dye it back brown.” Peter smiled at him and found a bottle of brown dye and a developer. Wade sat on the edge of the bathtub while Peter expertly mixed the dye in its little glass bowl. He parted his floppy hair with hair clips and started to apply the thick dye. Wade watched him work and wondered why a man like him would get involved with a mercenary in the first place. 

“Lucy likes it when my hair changes.” Peter said, smiling. “She gets mad that I won’t let her dye hers, but Gwen would have my head.”

“Gwen sounds like bitch.” Wade said. “A crazy bitch. Did she at least fuck well? It sounds like a wasted marriage to me.” 

“We were high school sweethearts. Everyone knew we would get married one day.” Peter responded. “They just didn’t know that Gwen’s ambition would trump my own and destroy her good qualities. We’re both scientists, you know.”

“I thought you were a professional dick-sucker.” Wade responded.

“Sex worker.” Peter corrected. “And that just pays the bills. I’m an inventor. Gwen was too, in her own way. But she gave that up after her father died to become a lawyer. She works mainly ethics cases when it comes to science crossing moral boundaries. But she represented herself in court when she tried to take Lucy from me and she is one cut-throat bitch.” Peter was mainly done applying the color now. 

“She turned me in for solicitation once. And she somehow got on my case as the prosecutor when I tried to press charges against Rhino.”   
“Whoa! She’s the reason you did time?” Wade asked. “Why the fuck did I kill Rhino instead of her?!” 

“Because she’s still my daughter’s mother.” Peter said, putting the last few touches on his hair. “And I know what it’s like to grow up without parents. I would have taken divorce over deceased any day.” Wade looked at Peter now in a sobering light. They didn’t know much about one another, did they? 

Peter set an egg timer for twenty minutes and the two men sat and talked for that long. Wade went on rants like he usually did and Peter talked over him when he wanted to make a point. They laughed together until their sides hurt and Peter gushed about Lucy and how smart she was. Wade didn’t even realize that his mask was still rolled up to expose his mouth, and Peter wasn’t about to point it out. Wade’s teeth were nice, Peter thought. Straight and white. They stood out against the scarred backdrop. 

The timer went off and Peter hopped in the shower, banishing Wade to wait for him outside. It was almost ten o’clock now, about a quarter till when Wade heard the water shut off. He approached the door and knocked. 

“I wanna see.” He said. Peter threw open the door and Wade first noticed the towel hanging low around his hips. He had seen Peter naked twice now but he never got used to his lean, muscular figure. The feminine curve of his waist was even more noticeable now, after Wade had seen him in a cocktail dress. Peter was drying his hair with a towel that was stained several different colors with dye. When he finally removed it, his hair was tousled and crazy. Between that, the steam, his being half naked, and the eyeliner that was still smudged around his eyes Wade couldn’t help himself. He stepped forward and ran his hand through Peter’s wet hair. It was a shade of brown that Wade would call dark chocolate.

“Wade.” Peter said in a hushed tone. Wade drew back his hand, embarrassed, but Peter caught him by the wrist. He was in his full Deadpool suit, so his skin wasn’t exposed to Peter’s touch. It was then that Wade realized his mask was still rolled up. He reached up to pull it down but Peter’s big brown eyes looked hurt at this gesture. 

“Don’t…” He said. Wade’s breath was nonexistent at this point. Peter had him by the hand and his face was partially exposed. Peter stepped up to him and before either man could think or Wade could perform evasive maneuvers Peter stood on his tiptoes and pressed his mouth to Wade’s. Peter couldn’t believe his own daring for a moment, but soon all thoughts were pushed out of his mind as Wade returned the kiss and wrapped his arms around Peter’s waist. The texture of Wade’s lips was different than what Peter expected. He could hardly tell the difference between Wade and any other man aside from the feeling of chapped lips. Well, that and the searing feeling in his belly. Their tongues mingled and Wade bent Peter back into a sort of tango dip, deepening the kiss even more until finally realizing they had both forgotten to breathe and breaking apart with a wet pop.   
Wade stood Peter back up and after a few shallow breaths he leaned back in, capturing Peter’s mouth with his own. Peter placed his hands on either side of Wade’s face and kissed him back, feeling the material of the mask under his fingers. All was well until Wade felt Peter’s fingers dip beneath the material of the mask and start to lift.

Wade broke apart a bit more roughly than he intended to and stared into Peter’s flushed face. Guilt crept into those brown eyes and Wade turned to leave the room, snatching his mask back down over his mouth.

“Wait!” Peter said. “I’m sorry!” Wade ignored him, moving into the kitchen. Peter dropped the towel and pulled his jeans on before pursuing Wade. 

“I just don’t understand.” He said, zipping up his jeans. “I’ve seen your hands; I’ve seen your jaw line. Wade, I know what you’ll look like, I’ve imagined it a hundred times!” 

“Have you?” Wade asked. “Some people like to scare themselves, I suppose.”

“No!”

“This is the stuff of nightmares, kid. And frankly I don’t appreciate being jerked around by some whore so that you can find out if you’re right about what I’ll look like or not.” Wade spat. Peter looked hurt at that word and Wade knew he had crossed a line, but he couldn’t stop. “Sorry, ‘Sex worker.’” He said. 

“That’s not what this is about.” Peter said, rage building in his own chest. 

“What’s it about then? Lack of respect for obvious boundaries?” Wade shot back. Before Peter could continue, the doorbell rang, startling both of them out of the spat. 

“Who is that?” Peter asked. 

“X-Ray vision is not on my list of superpowers.” Wade said. Peter gave him an annoyed look and approached the door to look out the peep hole. He turned around dramatically, pressing his back to the door. 

“It’s Gwen and Lucy!” He whispered. “Hide!” The doorbell rang again and Wade darted off down the hall and into the first door he grabbed hold of. He glanced up and saw that it was Peter’s bedroom, the one room he hadn’t been in yet. He could hear muffled voices through the door of Peter letting them both in. Wade was suddenly very nervous at the thought of meeting Lucy. She was Peter’s world, and even though they were fighting, Wade knew from that kiss that he and Peter were in for a wild ride. After a moment of raised voices he heard the front door slam. He started to open the door but he heard Peter come down the hall with Lucy.

“Sleepy girl.” Peter said lovingly. Wade heard soft snoring and realized Peter was carrying Lucy. He cracked the door open and sure enough, there was Peter going into Lucy’s room with Lucy cradled over one shoulder. She was a tiny angel as far as Wade could see. She was pale with long blonde hair in the same messy curls that her father had. Her eyes were closed but Wade would bet they were dark chocolate. Peter disappeared into Lucy’s room and put her to bed. Wade waited for him to open the door, but first Peter tiptoed down the hall to the study where he thought he could find Wade. In his confusion he went back across the bathroom and finally into his own room. 

“Wade?” He asked, cracking open the door carefully. 

“Yeah.” Wade responded. “I’m in here. And I’m not an axe murderer so come on in… Well, except for when I am an axe murderer… But that’s not right now.” Peter came in and shut the door. 

“Sorry. I wasn’t supposed to have Lucy until tomorrow. Gwen claims she called me, but she was just trying to catch me doing something wrong.” He said. Wade wasn’t sure how to feel, but luckily for him Peter spoke first.

“Wade, I’m sorry. You’re right. I knew that was a boundary and I crossed it anyway.” He said. Wade could hardly see him through the dim light let in by a high window. “I know you’re mad but…”

“Yeah.” Wade said. “I’m less mad now. Less mad and more turned on.” Peter’s eyebrows shot up as Wade rolled his mask up over his mouth again.  
“What?” Peter asked incredulously. 

“I know you’re a father and I know you’re a pros… sex worker. I know all that and I don’t care. Truth is, you’re attractive and I’d really love to fuck you, but I’ll settle for kissing you because this mask isn’t coming off. Not now and maybe not ever.” Wade said. 

“I can’t make love with the mask on.” Peter said. 

“Gross.” Wade responded. “Who said anything about love?” He drew Peter up into his arms again, kissing him with all of the pent-up attraction that he had left. Peter moved them toward the bed and straddled Wade, kissing him with passion Wade knew his clients had never seen. Wade wrapped his fingers up in Peter’s hair and pinned him down, their mouths still working against one another. Peter’s hands roamed down Wade’s body, feeling the first muscle the suit was hiding and wondering just what Wade was capable of. Wade would love to show him, but as he had just said, the mask was not coming off. Their hips bucked against one another, sending waves of desire ripping through Wade's core. After a could twenty minutes of making out and hushed little moans and feeling one another, Peter broke away. 

“I can’t.” Peter gasped.

“I never asked you to.” Wade responded, sitting up and letting Peter slide off of his lap to lie on his back on the bed. Wade pulled his mask back down and started to get up, but Peter’s hand on his bicep stopped him. 

“Don’t go.” He asked. “I won’t ask you to take the mask off… Just sleep in here, with me?” Wade lay back down wordlessly and felt Peter squirm up against him. He was in way over his head with this boy and he knew it. 

“Thank you.” Peter said. 

“Any time, baby boy.” Wade responded. He closed his eyes and tried to get to sleep, but the nagging voice in the back of his head wouldn’t let him. It told him that he wasn’t good enough for Peter, something he already knew. It told him the mask couldn’t stay on forever, another fact. Just as he started to drift off to sleep another thought crossed his mind.

“He’ll want me to meet Lucy tomorrow.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel so bad for these characters sometimes. I also can't wait for Lucy. Her's a fun idea. In my next chapter I wanted to plan an outing, where do you think Peter, Wade, and Lucy should go?


	5. Whale Song and Mr. Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wade leaves the apartment to get some fresh air and ends up in the bottom of a bottle with a woman he's just met. On his way back in, he runs into Lucy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have neglected this story! As you can tell from my other works (which you've all totally read) I tend to give up on things halfway through... But I've outlined the rest of it and I'm really trying my best to take this where I want it to go. I promise to try my best! All of the comments and Kudos have gotten me really inspired to do this!
> 
> ALSO: Trigger Warning for mention of Schizophrenia.  
> I also have a very small understanding of Schizophrenia. I did a little research, but I'm sure I didn't get it exactly right. Wade is canonically Schizophrenic so I decided it would be horrible of me to ignore that just because I wasn't sure how to write it. If anything is horribly inaccurate or offensive, let me know and I will revise accordingly. Don't be afraid to shoot me a message or to hit me up on Tumblr @ Skylinegiraffe.tumblr.com

Peter snored very softly, each little sound pulling at Wade’s heart strings a bit. Wade lay in silence. That is, his mouth was silent for once. The voices in his head, however, hadn’t been this loud in years. This was one of those things he needed for Peter to never find out. The narration boxes in his head that popped up from time to time and argued loudly enough for him to accidentally answer out loud. Sometimes he could go a few days without hearing anything from them, but today they were incredibly loud and impossible to ignore. Even with their volume he could have put them out of his mind if he didn’t also see them; the words appearing as if being quickly jotted by a pen and then wiped away to be replaced moments later.

In short: Schizophrenia. His healing factor ruled out medication, so Wade had to train himself to know what’s real and what’s not. While most people imagine schizophrenia to be more like “The Babadook,” the majority of the time to Wade it was annoying. The voices set his teeth on edge when he tried to watch TV, they told him he was useless every time he caught sight of his face. Sometimes he indulged them, sometimes he ignored them. It all depended on the day he was having. Tonight was a bad night.   
Wade climbed out of bed, trying to ignore the overwhelming voices in his head. He slid his arm very carefully out from under Peter’s neck and uncurled Peter’s fingers from his shirt. For a moment he just stood next to the bed, watching Peter’s chest rise and fall. But eventually the voices started in on him. There were two of them. One box was white and the other one was yellow, so Wade referred to them accordingly.

‘Pack up and get out.’ Yellow suggested. ‘He’s already too invested.’

‘No,’ White said. ‘Fuck him… and then pack up and get out.’ Wade shook his head, as if he could shake his brain free of them. At least there were only two right now. Wade slipped out into the hall and back down to his room to rummage through his bag and locate some street clothes. 

‘He’s got a kid.’ White said, almost sing-song. Wade ignored him, pulling on a white t-shirt and dark wash jeans. 

‘You’ll scare her to death.’ Yellow laughed. 

‘We’re nothing but nightmare material. Trapped in this worthless skull together, killing people and pretending to know if they deserve it or not.’ White said with sudden venom. Wade slipped into a leather jacket, the one with the gray hood hanging out of it, and black boots. He left the mask on in case Peter had woken up and he even put on his black gloves before creeping back down the hall. A soft noise had filled the apartment and Wade found himself wondering if it was in his head or reality. It sounded like soft crying. Not so much sniffles but wails, and very soft. 

‘Lucy’s room.’ Yellow said. “It’s coming from Lucy’s room.’

“I got that.” Wade said back, angrily. He tiptoed down the hallway to check on her, pausing outside of her door.

‘If she wakes up, she’ll be terrified.’ White said.

‘We’re wearing the mask, it wouldn’t be that bad.’ Said Yellow.

‘Still an intrusion.’ 

Wade ignored them both and pushed the cracked door open a bit more. Lucy lay in her little pink bed, sleeping. A small object on her nightstand was the source of the noise. Wade approached it carefully and saw that it was a nightlight and a noise maker. It played Whale songs very quietly to help Lucy sleep. Wade stood, looking down at her for a moment, so perfect and peaceful. 

‘Peter’s pride and joy.’ White said.

‘Don’t ruin this for him.’ Yellow said. ‘Gwen wants a reason to take her from him and you’re the perfect reason. The legendary Merc with a Mouth around a four year old?’

‘Sounds like a solid case to me.’ White added. 

‘Stay away from men with kids. You’re no good for a kid, remember?’

Wade backed out of Lucy’s room with a rising panic in his guts. He felt as if he had swallowed a grenade. They were right. He had been bad news to a daughter he was never even involved with. It was his fault she was gone. Still, he couldn’t just disappear into the night without telling Peter. 

‘Maybe that’s what Peter needs.’ White told him. 

“I need a drink.” He grumbled, heading to the front door and out of the building. 

As soon as he hit the cold air, he pulled his mask off and stuffed it into his pocket. It felt like it had been ages since his face had been uncovered and even though he knew it looked like a rotted cantaloupe, it was a relief. He was suffocating in there, under the weight of his Boxes and his fear. 

By ‘a drink’ Wade of course meant twenty. His healing factor prevented getting drunk just as easily as it prevented him taking antipsychotics. But while a doctor wouldn’t give him a bottle of pills a day, a bartender would give him whatever he wanted. He hailed a cab to a worse part of town and paid in cash, hopping out and walking a few blocks until he found an old Irish pub that was dimly lit and filled with the kind of people he loved. 

Sidling up to the bar, Wade pulled his hood down and held up a hand, trying to get the bartender’s attention. A woman came and sat down in the seat next to his and leaned over the bar, her cleavage spilling out and grabbing the bartender’s eye immediately. 

“What can I get you?” He asked, not even pretending not to stare at her chest. 

“I’ll take a beer, whatever’s on draft. And my friend here will have…” She turned her dark brown eyes onto Wade’s face. She had jet black hair pulled into a severe bun, but soft, gorgeous features that made her approachable. 

“Same, yeah.” Wade said. The barkeep hustled off to grab two frosted mugs and the woman next to him swiveled on her stool a bit.   
“I’m Maria.” She said, extending a hand. Wade shook it and watched her notice the gloves.

“Wade.” He responded. Unlike the bartender, his eyes were on her face. After all, he was in no mood to be slapped for staring and this woman looked like she could pack a punch. And on top of that, her face was truly striking. The bartender came back with two beers and Maria gave him her card. 

“What brings you to this part of New York?” She asked Wade, taking a long drink from her mug. Wade shrugged his shoulders and smiled at her.

“Indecision?” He said. “And you?” Maria considered this. 

“The same, actually. A promotion I’m not sure I want.” She told him. Wade chuckled. He forgot sometimes that normal people exist with normal problems. She took another drink from her beer, leaving a touch of her lipstick on the rim. Something about her was so intense, but Wade couldn’t put his finger on it. It wasn’t her sex appeal, which she did have. She was dressed in a low cut green top with black slacks and heels. She was beautiful in an effortless way, but not overly sexual. It was something in her eyes, Wade decided. 

‘We would love to take her home.’ Yellow commented. 

‘Where is home?’ White asked. 

“I don’t know!” Wade said.

“What?” Maria asked.

“You look like a cop.” Wade said, deflecting. “Dreading becoming police chief?” She laughed. 

“I’m not a cop.” She said. “It is a government job though. And anyway, I’m more than capable of doing this and doing it well. I just don’t know if I want to. Enough about me, what do you do?” She asked.

“I’m not at liberty to say.” He joked.

‘Not kidding.’

‘Yep, we kill people for a living.’

The two new acquaintances sat and talked while they drank. It was refreshing to be able to talk to someone without worrying about his looks. Chances were, he would never see this woman again in his life. Wade got the second round and learned that Maria could handle her alcohol. This became a game, ordering for one another, trying to get the other one drunk. Wade won, of course, but he was cheating with the whole ‘Super-human healing factor’ thing. Maria laughed loudly enough to turn every head in the bar and Wade couldn’t help but join in. 

The hours passed by and Wade felt a ton better than he had when he left. It may have been the shots he had lost count of, but it also could have been the semblance of having a friend. Finally the barkeep reached up and rang the bell.

“Last call!” He bellowed. “Last call for alcohol!” Wade looked at Maria, whose eyes were basically closed and flagged the bartender down to settle the tab. He wasn’t exactly sober, having drank just as much as Maria had and then some, but she was worse off than he was. The bar tender handed back their respective credit cards and Wade put the pen in Maria’s hand to get her to sign it. He may as well have closed his eyes and written “Donald Duck” with the way her handwriting sloped all over the paper. He tipped the bar tender and slipped one arm under Maria’s back to help her out to the sidewalk. 

“I’m gonna take it.” She slurred. “Fuck Nick, I can do this job.” 

“You take it then.” Wade encouraged her, raising his arm to flag down a cab. It was the blind leading the blind the way they stumbled around outside of the bar. When a cab finally pulled up, Maria wrapped her fingers up in Wade’s shirt and pulled him closer until their chests were pressed together. A passerby whistled and Wade felt his eyebrows shoot up. 

“Come home with me.” She said, standing on her tiptoes to kiss him on the mouth. Wade pulled back, her lips leaving his as quickly as they had touched. He laughed. 

“You’re drunk!” He said. 

“So are you.” She argued. “It would be drunk and fun.” 

“It would be drunk and not okay.” Wade corrected. She rolled her eyes and then looked at him with sudden suspicion.

“Are you gay?” She asked. “That would make me feel better.”

“Pansexual, actually.”

“What is that?” 

“I date who I date.” He said. She considered this.

“I don’t want a date, I want a night.”

Wade helped her down into the cab and stood back to shut the door. 

“Sorry, but no.” He said. “Be good.” He slammed the door and leaned into the driver’s window, passing her a one-hundred dollar bill. “In case she pukes.” He said.   
He watched the cab drive off and then set about hailing another one for himself. The night hadn’t made the Boxes quiet but it sure as hell helped to take his mind off of them. Another yellow car pulled up to the curb and Wade climbed in, giving the cabbie the address and laying his swirling head back in the seat. 

‘Did the right thing.’ White assured him.

‘Didn’t fuck up for once.’ Yellow added. 

“She was drunk.” Wade said out loud. “Don’t congratulate me for doing the bare minimum and not sleeping with her.”  
“What?” The cabbie asked. 

“Nothing.” Wade responded. The rest of the car trip was silent, aside from Wade’s quiet singing. The bump of the car was enough to rock him to sleep, especially considering how much he’d had to drink. 

“Show me the way to go home,” He sang. “I’m tired and I want to go to bed….” He was slurring a little and bouncing to his song.

“Is that from Jaws?” the cabbie asked. Wade ignored him and hummed the rest of the song, having forgotten the words. 

“We’re here.” The man said, turning around to look at Wade expectantly. Wade forked over the cash and climbed out, already to the dizzy/stupid stage of his drunkenness. He climbed the steps to the apartment building and tried the door knob, but it was locked. He considered knocking, but it was nearly three in the morning and he didn’t want to wake Lucy. 

He decided to go back out of the building and use the fire escape like he had all those days ago before he and Peter really knew each other. Back out in the cold, he climbed up the metal ladder and onto the steps. It was next to impossible for his feet to be quiet, but he was doing his best. When he reached the window and slid it open as silently as possible it didn’t even occur to him that Lucy might be awake. It also didn’t occur to him that his mask was still stuffed in his back pocket. 

But she was and it was and then he was standing in her room, at the foot of her bed, staring into wide blue eyes. He expected her to scream, but she didn’t. She tilted her head to the side and considered him objectively. 

“Hello, mister.” She whispered. Her voice was very small and high pitched. “Are you Peter Pan?”

“No.” He whispered back.

“Captain Hook?” She pronounced Captain “Cap-in,” and sounded slightly alarmed.

"No."

“Are you friends with Daddy?” she asked.

“Yes.” He answered, still half drunk. “I’m good friends with Daddy. He’s letting me stay here because I don’t have a house right now. Go back to sleep.” She rubbed her eyes as Wade pulled his mask out of his pocket and over his head. 

“I’m glad Daddy has a friend. He needs a friend. What’s that?” She asked, lying back down to sleep. 

“My mask.” Wade said. “So I don’t scare people.” Lucy yawned, showing a missing tooth on the top row. 

“What’s your name?” She asked.

“Wade.” He responded hesitantly. 

“My whales when to sleep, Mr. Way.” She said. “Can you wake them back up so they’ll talk?” She snuggled back down into her bed and closed her eyes. Wade felt his heart jump when she mispronounced his name. She was so cute! He could see Peter’s features on her tiny face.

Wade went to her nightstand and fumbled with the small night light. Eventually he found the right button and the whale song started up again. 

“Thank you, Mr. Way.” She said sleepily. 

“No problem, kid.” As Wade backed out of her room he heard her sigh. 

“You don’t scare me.” She said, and then she was sleeping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I LOVE Wade and his insecurities. The mask will come off eventually, I promise.   
> LUCY IS SO MUCH FUN TO WRITE!!!


	6. Breakfast and Bioluminescence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wade makes breakfast and goes on a hit. Peter and Lucy spend the day together. Then all three go on a museum tour and things get mushy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I made a Sims 4 version of Peter's apartment that some of you may like to see and posted it on my Tumblr .  
> Other than that, enjoy!

When Peter awoke the next morning, there was an array of breakfast foods sitting out on the counter top. Wade must have just left them there since they were still steaming. He felt a pang of sadness that Wade wasn’t there. He had woken up cold, the other half of the bed missing its occupant. He didn’t know how to get in touch with Wade. All this time and they hadn’t even exchanged phone numbers. 

Peter made a small plate for Lucy and poured her a glass of orange juice before going into her room to wake her. She looked adorable and a little funny with her hair wild and her little mouth open in sleep. Peter shook her gently and she curled into a ball, not wanting to get up. He laughed and shook her again. This time she rolled over and glared up at him.

“What time is it, Daddy?” She asked.

“Nine o’clock.”

“Do I have school?” 

“No.”

“Why do I have to get up?” 

“Because breakfast is getting cold!” He said. “Come on.” He lifted her up out of the bed and she reluctantly put her feet on the floor. He got her out of her pajamas and into a sundress and tights and then sat down on the floor with her to braid her hair. Halfway through a fishtail he heard the bathroom door open and shut. Wade was still here after all! He quickly finished the braid, the bottom half a little sloppier than he would have liked, and tied it off. 

“Is Mr. Way still here?” Lucy asked, her face still scrunched and grumpy. Peter raised an eyebrow. 

“Who is Mr. Way?” Peter asked. “Is he an imaginary friend?” Lucy shook her head. 

“He’s not my friend, he’s your friend.” She said. Peter was still confused until Lucy suddenly bolted from the room and into the kitchen.   
“I smell pancakes!” She shouted. Peter chuckled. 

“That’s my kid. Mad at the world before noon unless there’s food.” He followed her into the kitchen where she sat, digging into the pancakes on her plate. Wade stood, leaned against the refrigerator, anything but relaxed. 

“That’s Mr. Way.” Lucy said, pointing a fork at Wade before chomping down on what appeared to be hash browns covered in ketchup and syrup. 

“Oh.” Peter said, looking at Wade. “Mr. Wade. Makes sense now.” 

“Don’t correct her.” Wade said. “It’s too cute.” Peter grabbed a plate from the cabinet and started helping himself to the French toast on the counter.

“You two met?” Peter asked. Wade shrugged.

“Her whales went to sleep and she wanted me to wake them up.” Wade said. Peter had an odd expression that Wade couldn’t identify. 

“When I woke up this morning, you were gone…” he started, glancing at Lucy as if he were afraid to say too much. Wade took this opportunity to escape, turning to haul tail toward the study/his room.

“Mr. Way!” Lucy shouted. Wade turned around, smiling despite himself.

“It’s just Wade.” He said. “Drop the Mister.” She nodded her head.

“Don’t you want to eat, Way?” She asked. Wade was frozen there. He wanted to retreat to his room, maybe clean his guns and take a much needed nap, but he also didn’t want to see her tiny face frown. So instead he wheeled himself back around and grabbed a plate after Peter. He put some hash browns between two slices of French toast and topped it with a pancake. Then he smothered the whole thing in syrup and cinnamon. 

“That looks disgusting.” Peter said, turning up his nose. Wade looked offended.

“This is a hash brown sandwich with a pancake garnish!” He said. “In France it’s called the ‘Deadpool Special!’”

He hesitated now, knowing he had to lift his mask. Even though Lucy had seen his face the night before, he had convinced himself that she didn’t get a good look. Now, in broad daylight, she would. He got up again, pouring himself a cup of coffee to bide time. Lucy was a slow eater, pushing everything around on her plate until it was more of a casserole. He returned to the table, knowing Peter’s eyes were on him but not wanting to look up to meet them. After a few more moments of silence Lucy piped in with her mouth full.  
“Eat, Way.” Her cheeks were so full that she looked like a chipmunk. Peter looked disgusted but Wade thought she was the cutest thing he had ever seen. Still, he hesitated. Lucy trained her eyes on him, studying him with a look beyond her years.

“Way,” She started. “I’m not scared of you. I think you’re pretty.” She nodded her head as if to say “That is final” and went back to shoveling food. Wade felt himself blush, first from her comment and then from the silliness of it. He felt rooted to the chair. After a moment or two of hesitation, he reached up and rolled the mask up and over his mouth.   
“That’s okay.” Lucy said. “Little steps are good things.” 

O O O O

After a very tense and awkward breakfast, Peter helped Lucy with her homework while Wade stepped out of the apartment for some air. Wade was amused to see that pre-school homework was a dream journal with illustrations. Peter wrote while Lucy drew. Wade caught a glimpse of a forest being colored quite aggressively with an orange crayon. Peter tried not to notice that Wade left with his backpack slung over a shoulder. 

The hours passed slowly for Peter. He and Lucy finished her dream journal and moved on to one of Lucy’s favorite things: Yoga. Peter bought himself a Yoga mat one day when he decided that he wanted to tone up and Lucy lay on the floor coloring while he followed the DVD. In less than five minutes she was up and doing it along with him. Now it was a sort of Father-Daughter routine. He even bought Lucy a Dinosaur yoga mat and some little green toe socks with grips on the bottom. The best part of Father-Daughter Yoga was that they were both horrible at it. Peter had fantastic balance, but holding a strenuous pose for long periods of time was not fantastic. His thighs would burn after ten seconds and the instructor would still hold it there. Lucy was four years old, so at least she had an excuse. She flopped around on her mat, trying her best to hold her arms up in the warrior pose and failing.

Still, this was a fun way of bonding with Lucy that Peter wouldn’t trade for anything. Not even thighs that don’t ache. They followed the routine as best they could, both wobbling all over their mats. This was one of many morning activities. After Yoga they cleaned Lucy’s room and did some laundry—Peter folded laundry while Lucy messed it up. They cleaned up the apartment a bit and packed up the leftovers from breakfast into Tupperware to eat later. When lunch time rolled around, Peter threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and decided to get out of the apartment for a while. He knew Wade was out on a hit and he needed to take his mind off of it.

“Macaroni pizza!” Lucy shouted. Peter laughed and rolled his eyes. Lucy and Wade would get along fantastically just by bonding over weird food. 

Wade got home later that afternoon, his suit soaked in his own blood plus the blood of that dickhead he had disemboweled earlier. The hit was simple enough; kill a bastard cheating husband who had impregnated an 18 year old college intern that worked for him. However, there was one request. Apparently the wife had donated part of her liver to him when they were married… She wanted it back. Since she was a doctor, she had shelves full of abnormal specimens she had collected over the years. She said the police would be none the wiser. So, Wade went and bought a jar, Ethyl alcohol, and Formalin. That was all pretty easy. Taking this bastard down was hard.

When he arrived in the house (which looked like something out of Gossip Girl. Wade loved Gossip Girl) the husband had armed himself without Wade’s knowledge. He de took a shotgun blast to the back before he knew the man was in the room. But the searing pain was well worth the look on Hubby’s face when Wade pulled himself off the ground like a scene from the Walking Dead. He took another blast, this one to his left thigh, as he swatted the gun from the man’s grip. Then he pulled out his Katanas and got to work.   
After he was dead and Wade pulled out his phone to Google ‘Human Liver + images’ Wade scooped up what he thought to be the liver and tucked it in his back pack. In the cab on the way to the meet up spot with Wifey, he combined the preservatives in the jar and slid the squishy organ in there as well. Then he took out a pen and wrote on the label ‘Specimen 3425-54837; Abnormal.’ He laughed at his own stupid joke and ignored the cab driver’s nervous trembling. After dropping the organ off with the wife and explaining that the numbers spelled out “Dick Liver” on any standard keypad, Wade made his way back to the apartment. 

He was surprised and slightly relieved to find that Peter and Lucy weren’t there. A quick glance in the mirror hanging on the wall was enough to tell Wade how traumatized Lucy would have been to see him. The fabric of his suit hung off in tatters on his back and his thigh where he had been shot. The bright red was soaked a dull brown where his blood had mainly dried. In addition to the ribbons hanging off of the suit, some bits of fabric had been shoved into the gaping wounds. His thigh took the worst of the damage, a chunk of muscle blown completely away, but his back didn’t exactly feel great.

On top of the feeling of cancer eating away at him while his body healed it, he also had to deal with the pain of any injuries he sustained while working. He posed in the mirror, moving his thigh so that he could see the exposed bone. It was a slow healing job for whatever reason; maybe because the buckshot had to be pushed out first. As he stood there, flexing a bit and watching the undulating muscle beneath his spandex, he suddenly heard the doorknob rattle. He rushed at top speed into Peter’s bedroom, feeling like a car with a flat tire, and slammed the door. 

Peter and Lucy ended up staying out way later than Peter intended. They went and got supplies for Lucy’s Junior Science Fair entry. It wasn’t something her pre-school required, but Peter encouraged her love of all things scientific. After purchasing poster board, glitter, glue, and markers Peter and Lucy went to the park to research her hypothesis. On a note on his phone Peter typed “Pigeons Have Friends:” and prepared to take notes for Lucy. They watched the birds for a while, trying to prove that there are cliques in the pigeon world, until Lucy started to get a little cranky. Peter put her on his back and walked the several blocks back home. He had spent a little too much money at the store and didn’t feel like he should spend any more on a cab. It took about fifteen minutes for him to walk back and by that time Lucy had fallen asleep. He climbed the stairs up to the fifth floor and shoved his key into the knob. Swinging the door open he heard another door slam somewhere in the apartment and his heart jumped knowing Deadpool was home.  
Peter very carefully carried Lucy to her bedroom and tucked her in after pulling off her shoes. He left the door slightly cracked and went to his own door. He knocked very softly. 

“Wade?” He asked. 

“Not a good time, man.” Wade responded. Peter pushed the door open anyway. Wade sat on the bed, back against the headboard and blankets pulled up to his waist. Peter scrunched his face up at him for a moment before suddenly jumping in realization.

“Oh! Oh my god.” He said, covering his eyes with a hand and backing toward the door. “I should not have walked in! You said ‘not a good time’ I thought you meant you were sleeping or trying to or-”

“No!” Wade nearly shouted, realizing what Peter thought. “It’s not like that, Pete. I took care of that in the shower this morning. This is not a solo sock-on-the-door kind of thing.” Wade insisted. Peter slowly remove this hand from his face and looked at Wade suspiciously. 

“Then what is it?” He asked. Wade paused, looking sheepish. 

“Okay, baby boy, where’s the kid?” He asked. Peter looked confused.

“Asleep?” He said. 

“Shut the door.” Wade commanded. Peter obeyed slowly, wondering what he was getting into. Wade took a deep breath.

“You can’t freak out.” He said. Peter nodded. Wade braced himself and pulled the covers back, revealing the chunk of meat and muscle missing from his left thigh. Peter’s face turned white, but he didn’t really react. After a few seconds he cleared his throat, trying to maintain his composure. Finally he nodded his head and took a step toward the bed. The bone was no longer exposed, a thin layer of tendons had replaced themselves over the wound, and the hole itself had closed in a bit. 

“I’ll call Gwen to take Lucy and get you to a hospital.” Peter said. He turned to leave and Wade shouted “No! Wait!” Peter turned back to him, his face now a slightly pinker color. Wade stood up and turned his back to Peter. This wound was nearly closed now.

“Watch.” He said. Peter stared at his back, trying not to wobble. As he watched, one last bit of buckshot was pushed out of his shoulder blade and the skin started to ripple like water as it moved back together. Wade realized that Peter was seeing more skin now than he ever had, but as Lucy said, baby steps are good. 

The voices in his head hit a crescendo at this point, insisting that Peter would have him packed and gone by the end of the day. They told him it was a good thing that it happened before he’d had the chance to defile Peter. Wade shook his head, trying to silence them. Peter’s lack of response wasn’t exactly instilling him with confidence. The boxes shrieked every insecurity he had.

“Are you part lizard?” Peter finally asked. 

“What?” 

“The regeneration… It’s common in lizards. Crabs too I guess. Vestigial tails and… tearing off arms… Claws, I mean. I can’t remember the word for that.” Peter mumbled. 

“Do you need to sit down?” Wade asked. Peter nodded, sinking down to perch on the edge of his bed. “I am not part lizard.” Wade said, suppressing a laugh. 

“Right.” Peter said. “Can I see your thigh?” Wade obliged, sticking his leg out straight on the bed where he sat. Peter watched the muscle grow fibers which attached in the middle and expanded in thickness. 

“This is unbelievable…” Peter said. “Does it hurt?” 

“No.” Wade lied. 

“This is unreal.” Peter whispered. They sat there together, neither one talking. Wade knew he had another half hour of healing at least, so he made himself comfortable and soon fell asleep. 

When he awoke, it was darker in the room, the light was off and the blankets were pulled up over him. He wiggled his toes and realized his boots were gone as well. Pulling back the blankets he looked at his leg, which was healed up nicely, and swung his feet over the side of the bed. He approached the door, but through it he could hear the TV. It was on some kid’s show with bright voices and jumpy music. Wade looked down at his suit. He couldn’t let Lucy see him all torn up. 

He went to the dresser near the door and started to riffle through it. He found the drawer full of Peter’s underwear and felt his face get a little hot. He shut that and moved on until he found a long sleeved t-shirt and a pair of jeans that would fit him. He was a bit bigger than Peter, so the pants must have been a little large for Peter too. He got dressed, pulling his boots back on and leaving the mask. When he came out of the room he found Lucy at the table, eating macaroni and coloring. Peter was on the phone, standing in the kitchen and smiling from ear to ear. 

“Yes, three of us.” Peter said into the phone. “Me, Lucy, and as friend of mine… His name is Wade, yeah… Okay! That’s awesome, I’ll see you then!” He hung up the phone and went to the table.

“Lucy,” He said. “How would you like to go to a museum with lots of cool science stuff?” He asked. 

“Yeah!” Lucy said. 

“I have a friend whose father owns Oscorp. He’s willing to let me, you, and Lucy come in today and have a private tour of the museum!” Peter told Wade excitedly.

“Peter, I can’t go with you.” Wade said, slightly irritated. “Can you imagine walking through a museum with a child and a man dressed like a closet cosplay super villain?” He gestured to himself, indicating the mask paired with street clothes.

“That’s the beauty of it, Wade.” Peter grinned. “This exhibit doesn’t open until tomorrow morning. My friend Harry got me in because his father owns the tech. The museum has been closed for a few days while they set it all up and it opens tomorrow, so he’s letting us in tonight to take a private tour of the entire place including the new stuff!” He was practically bouncing on his toes by this point. Wade felt his belly tighten and his face get hot. Peter was so damn adorable. 

“Still.” Wade said. “Won’t your friend be there?” 

“Yes, but he’s seen worse.” Peter blurted. Wade flinched. “No! I meant weirder! That’s not right either.” Peter corrected. 

“I know what you meant.” Wade said. “And you're right. A scientist has seen it all; a man who… looks like me can’t be all that bad.” He eyed Lucy who sat at the table, humming and coloring.

“I meant he won’t judge you for wearing the mask.” Peter said. “He’s a good person. And his dad is the scientist, not him. He’s an intern right now.” 

“I’m not going.” Wade said with an air of finality. Lucy looked up suddenly, brown eyes wide. 

“You have to go, Way!” She exclaimed. Wade shifted uncomfortably. “They have rocket ships, and they have astronaut helmets, and they have stuff in jars, and they have dirt!” She listed. 

“I know, Lucy…” he said, not wanting to disappoint the most adorable child in the world, but also not wanting to make Peter’s life more complicated. 

“Way,” She said, pointing at him with the stub of blue crayon she held. “Do you not like fun?”

“That could not be further from the truth.” Wade informed.

“Do you not think rocket ships are cool?”

“I’m mostly interested on why ‘dirt’ made your list.”

“Are you afraid of museums when they’re empty because stuff might come alive and we’re not friends with Ben Stiller?”

“You’re four, why do you know his name?!” 

“Then come with us!” She practically shouted. Wade considered her determined face. Peter stood silently by, seeing the affect Lucy had on Wade and thinking she might be able to force Wade to come along better than he could. Wade went to the table and sat down across from Lucy. He lowered his voice so that Peter couldn’t hear him.

“Do you remember my face?” He asked, dreading the answer. She nodded her head without hesitation. Wade sighed. “Well, I can’t take the mask off because people will think mean things about me and that makes me sad. But if I wear the mask, I’m scared people will think or say mean things anyway.” Lucy smiled, showing her missing tooth.

“When I’m scared, Daddy holds my hand and I feel better! Daddy will hold your hand too if you ask him!” She announced. Peter turned away from the table, but Wade could hear him struggling to hide his laughter.

It was decided then that Wade would come. He didn’t take Lucy advice and hold Peter’s hand, even though Peter offered twice in the cab on the way there despite the murderous glances Wade shot him. It was almost worth Peter seeing him unmasked to properly convey the annoyance on his face… almost. 

It was a fifteen minute cab ride that Wade payed no attention to. He was mainly interested in watching Peter braid Lucy’s hair on the way. Peter was multitalented Wade was discovering. It was endearing to see him with Lucy; so caring and affectionate. Especially considering what else Wade had seen him do. They pulled up to the curb and Wade payed the cabbie before hopping out after his companions. They walked to the end of the block and waited for the light to change before crossing. As soon as he stepped off the curb, Lucy reached up and took Peter’s hand with one of her hands and then grabbed for Wade’s. Wade was caught off guard, but allowed her to wrap her tiny fingers around his own.   
“Can’t cross the street that way.” She said, almost scolding him.

“Sorry.” Wade said, smiling. They approached the building and Wade locked onto the man standing on the steps. He had a sparse, almost comical face with bright green eyes. His hair was a reddish brown and his suit was tailored to fit him perfectly. As they approached Wade realized with a snicker that he looked like a thin Frank Costello. 

“Peter!” Harry said, clapping Peter on the back. He knelt down next to Lucy and she smiled.

“Whoa!” He said. “What happened to your tooth?” She giggled.

“Mommy pulled it out and left it for the tooth fairy and the tooth fairy gave me five dollars for it!” She said. 

“That’s cool!” Harry told her with the fake enthusiasm adults always use with small children. Wade wondered if people could tell when he rolled his eyes under the mask. 

“I’m happy that I have five dollars,” Lucy said. “But I’m worried about the tooth fairy…”

“What do you mean?” Peter asked. 

“Well, why does she want teeth?” She asked. “She’s magic and instead of being a fairy godmother like from Cinderella, she pays little kids for bit of bone covered in blood and meat.” The three men were silent for a few seconds, Harry and Peter horrified and Wade trying to control the laughter that was shaking his entire ribcage. 

“Well…” Harry said. “I’m happy to see you’re just as sharp as your father. Let me show you three in.” He climbed the four or five steps up and led the small group into the enormous front doors. To his credit, he didn’t give Wade a second glance. Wade knew Peter had told him to be kind, but even if he had prior warning, he was a good enough person not to stare. Harry locked the doors behind them and put his hand on Peter’s shoulder.

“I wish I could lead the charge, but I’ve got some last minute prep to do for the grand opening. There are maps at every corner and the new exhibit is at the end of the red path. Call me if you need anything, have a good time, and please don’t touch anything.” And with that, he was off. And so was Lucy. She shot off like a rocket, sprinting to the end of the hall and jumping up and down to see the map. Wade and Peter followed at a leisurely pace, chuckling at her excitement. 

Once they found the correct path they let Lucy lead the way. She bounced from one exhibit to the next, pointing and crying out “Look Daddy, look Way!” on occasion. Peter and Wade looked too, Peter more excited than Wade, but nowhere near Lucy’s level. 

“So, Harry,” Wade said. “Is he a friend from school?” Peter glanced at him, wondering where this was coming from. 

“Yes.” He said. “We went to the same college for a little while. I was on a scholarship and his dad owned the science building and the observatory.” 

“Oh.” Wade grunted. They walked in silence, both keeping their eyes on Lucy. 

“Why?” Peter asked. 

“Curious.” Wade responded. 

“Curious about Harry or about me and Harry?”

“About Harry.”

“Yeah?”

“No.” Wade admitted. “I assumed he was a client.” Peter stopped dead in his tracks. 

“A client?” He asked, suddenly full of rage. 

“Yeah.” Wade said. “I thought maybe he was a John.”

“Lucy is here.” Peter fumed. “And he left us the moment we got in. Why on earth would I bring my daughter to meet a client?” His face was red, his wild hair seeming more like Medusa’s snakes by the minute.

“Whoa! Not what I meant, bro. Chill with the dagger eyes.” Wade threw his hands up. “I meant, I thought you met him because he was a client and became friends. I didn’t think this was a call.” Peter relaxed and Wade started along the path again. Lucy had stopped to look at the video of a jelly fish that was playing next to an exhibit featuring several vials of glowing liquid. They caught up to her and she pointed to the jelly fish.

“How do they glow, Daddy?” She asked.

“They’re called ‘bioluminescent.’” Peter told her. 

“Bioloonessent.” She attempted. 

“Basically, the jellyfish has special stuff in it that glows so it can see in the water when it’s dark.” Peter explained.   
“What kind of stuff?” Lucy asked.

“Chemicals.” Peter told her. She mulled this over for a bit while she watched the videos and then without warning she shot off like a rocket.  
“Kids are great.” Wade said. “When they’re little, they think you know everything.”

“I do know everything.” Peter challenged. Wade laughed. 

“Okay, then explain light-up jellyfish to me in big people words.” He said. Peter raised his eyebrows, accepting the challenge.

“The glowing is caused by a chemical reaction between the pigment luciferin and the enzyme luciferase. Luciferase oxidizes luciferin and excites the molecules inside the jellyfish which then emit light.” Peter began.

“You’re reading that from somewhere!” Wade accused. Peter put his hands over his own eyes in an exaggerated motion and continued. 

“This reaction is assisted by the protein aequorin. In a few species that exhibit bioluminescence—not to be mistaken with chemiluminescence—the luciferin needs cofactors like calcium or magnesium ions or even ATP. That stands for adenosine triphosphate and it’s the thing that reacts in all living creatures to achieve motion.” He finished, removing his hands and grinning from ear to ear.

“Did you enjoy school or did you just have a hard on for Bill Nye the Science Guy?” Wade asked. Peter rolled his eyes. 

“I want to be a scientist.” He admitted. “More of an engineer, I guess. But a lot of inventions branch from biology. The exhibit that Lucy was looking at was an example of an organic bioluminescent reaction engineered by Oscorp that can be injected into anything. They found a way to trick the molecules into reproducing indefinitely and sustaining the glow. This could be a game changer for deep sea divers, emergency responders, and even people with a fear of the dark.”

“Not to mention those attending a rave.” Wade added. 

“Just picture a soldier waking up from a PTSD induced nightmare and calling out to his guide dog in the dark. The dog comes into the room wearing his collar which is made of tubing containing this serum. The soldier doesn’t have to get up to get the lights or fumble with a lamp. The light is always there.” Peter said. Wade nodded his head, recognizing Peter’s passion and the fact that he was opening up.

“Yeah.” Wade said. “That would be amazing.” 

“I was offered an internship right out of college. The same one Harry has now. I would have been working alongside Dr. Osborn and his entire team…” Peter said.  
“But Lucy.” Wade finished for him. Peter nodded. 

“I wouldn’t change anything. I’m glad I can be there for her… I love being a father. It was an unpaid internship that had the potential to turn into a job offer after one year. But the divorce was final and I had to find my own apartment. So I chose to do something that paid well, didn’t have long hours, and wasn’t some soul crushing cubicle.” 

“Sex work.” Wade said. Peter nodded. 

“Then I quit taking orders from one guy and joined a safer company and the Rhino happened…Then I hired you and then it’s now.” He finished, laughing. They rounded the corner together and found an enormous playground. Lucy turned and looked at Peter, her eyes the size of dinner plates. Peter nodded and she shot off like a bottle rocket, climbing a ladder and shooting down a slide. 

“Think it’s awesome.” Wade said. 

“What’s awesome?” Peter asked. 

“The man you became. You were in a shit marriage and you got out of that, you have a wonderful daughter who is sweet to everyone she meets, a job you enjoy that makes bank, and you’re passionate about science. It’s dorky, but it’s cool.” Wade explained. “Not to mention your braiding skills.” Peter laughed.

“Long hair is so hard to manage!” He said. “I had a woman teach me after we went to her sister’s wedding.” Wade blinked.

“What?”

“Oh,” Peter blushed. “I don’t really talk about my work.”

“You fell for a Jane?!” Wade asked.

“No! I went with her to her younger sister’s wedding.” Peter told him. They found a bench and sat down while Lucy ran around and played. “People hire me for a number of reasons. I’m a sex worker, yeah, but there’s a reason the term ‘escort’ exists. We don’t have to sleep with the client and sometimes they don’t want us to.”

“No way. They hire you to do what?” Wade narrowed his eyes as if skeptical.

“Well, she needed a date to her sister’s wedding. Apparently the whole family had been on her case to find a ‘nice boy’ and then her sister got engaged before her even though she’s five years younger. So she wanted a date. We went together, held hands, sat together, and danced all night.” Peter told him. “It was actually really fun.”

“What else?!” Wade demanded. 

“I’ve been to a few weddings like that before. A charity event or two with recently divorced women looking to stick it to their husbands… What else? A guy once hired me to come eat thanksgiving dinner with his family.”

“Why?”

“Apparently he came out to them a couple of years before and his mother asked if he had slept with a man. He told her he hadn’t and she told him that he couldn’t be gay without having done it with a guy.”

“So he hired you to take his man-ginity? Like, on the table?” Wade asked. “In front of his mother and the yams?” 

“No, he invited me to pose as his boyfriend so his mother would leave him alone.” Peter rolled his eyes. “I charge extra for other people to watch, even if they don’t participate.” Wade blushed at this, his ragged skin turning a lovely shade of red. 

“Okay,” Wade said. “Weirdest call ever.”

“That one is interesting.” Peter began. “She was around eighty years old.”

“Oh my god!”

“Just listen!” Peter chided. “When I got there she asked me if I was a sex worker. I told her I was and she just nodded her head. Then she asked me if I would escort her to her doctor’s appointment. She had read online that I was an escort and needed help getting there and back.” Wade absolutely lost it. His laugh echoed off the high ceilings. Lucy yelled “what’s funny?” but didn’t wait for a response before throwing herself into a ball pit.

“Did you take her?” Wade asked between his bursts of giggles. 

“Of course I did.” Peter laughed too. “And when we got back to her house I changed a few lightbulbs, took out her trash, helped her move her arm chair closer to the TV, and snaked the drain in her bathtub.” Wade couldn’t have laughed any harder than he already was. 

“Snaked her drain!” he exclaimed. 

“Yep. And I told her she didn’t have to pay me, but she said I deserved it and she called me a ‘kind young man.’ We exchange Christmas cards now. She babysits Lucy on occasion.” He smiled. “I love Dotty.” Wade tried to ease his laughter, but it was hard. The thought of Peter changing lightbulbs while an old woman stared at his butt was the greatest thing his brain had ever cooked up. Peter joined in, chuckling along with him until finally Wade’s lungs decided they needed air.

“You are a kind man, you know.” Wade said. “Dotty the Perv was right.”

“Don’t call my old lady friend a perv! But yeah, I know…” He paused. “You are too.” Wade shook his head, sobering up from his earlier hysterics. 

“Wade, you asked me about Rhino. A hit man doesn’t care who he kills. You do.” He shrugged. “You’re a good person… And even though my daughter is right over there, tiring herself out by trying to see-saw alone, I want to kiss you.” Wade lowered his eyes. 

“Not in front of the kid.” He said. Peter gestured to Lucy who sat on a swing set now, her back to the two of them. 

“Wade, what are you afraid of?” Peter’s eyes begged to know. Wade hesitated, trying not to meet Peter’s flawless brown eyes. That was it… Flawless.

“Peter, you’re beautiful.” Wade said. “You’ve got these cheekbones and a strong jaw. Your hair is wild and it’s charming. You’re charming. You’re eyes have a depth to them that a person could fall into if they look too long. Not to mention, I’ve seen you in a towel and those abs are… frankly uncalled for. I’m just saying, you have all of this going on and I’m a science experiment gone wrong. Biology fucked me, man.”

“How do you mean?”

“You think I was always like this?” Wade asked. “Unlike Gaga, I was not born this way. Someone did this to me. I signed up for it, in his defense, but still. The super healing and strength were the goal, the ground beef skin? Not so much. You’re so fucking attractive and kind and charismatic and I’m a dickhead and an actual murderer. So, what I’m afraid of is the universe giving me a living Bratz Doll and looming in the distance to squash me and my bullshit feelings because I never get to have nice things.”

“Wow.” Peter whistled. 

“You asked.” Wade said defensively. 

“Wade… It’s just a kiss.” Peter told him. “And I’m just a guy. I’m not some runway model like you seem to think I am, and I happen to be very attracted to you. I’ve seen your back and your leg, your jaw…” He traced his fingers over wade’s jawline and Wade felt his chest get hot.

“I’ve seen your hands and your lips. So why can’t I see your face?” He asked. “I have significant feelings for you, Wade. I trust you to be around my daughter, and I don’t even know what color your eyes are!”

“They’re brown.” Wade said. “Happy? Like yours, only flat and dull and the last thing you’ll look at if this mask ever came off.”

“Then just kiss me.” Peter said. “I’ve seen your lips before, can I see them again?”

“Why can’t you kiss me through the mask?” Wade asked. All of this attention was making him extra self-conscious.

“I’ve seen ‘V for Vendetta,’ I’m not going to kiss the mask.” Peter said. Wade reached up, rolling his mask over his mouth and nose and leaned in to kiss Peter. The kiss was short and sweet. Less of a new lover’s kiss and more like something an old married couple does before leaving off for work. As they broke apart, Wade saw Lucy racing toward them. He hastily pulled the mask back down. 

“Don’t worry, Way!” Lucy said, reaching them and climbing into Peter’s lap. “I already know what you look like. I saw it before, remember?”

“Yeah,” Peter agreed. “At breakfast.”

“No, Daddy. Before that.” Lucy corrected. “When Way came through the window because he’s got no keys and I was awake because my whales got quiet. He wasn’t wearing Mask then.” Peter turned to look at Wade, shocked and what seemed like a bit hurt.

“I got locked out!” Wade defended himself. “I had to use the fire escape. I didn’t know she was awake.” Peter nodded slowly, then picked Lucy up and set her on the ground.   
“How about we see the new exhibit?” He asked. Lucy cheered, not realizing the trouble she had caused. 

After enduring a very tense tour, Peter and Lucy went to meet Harry to say goodbye. Wade wandered into the gift shop and looked around for a bit. The museum wasn’t open so there was no one there. Technically the doors had been locked… But it was their own fault for using a Kwikset lock with a five pin tumbler. In the toy section he found what he was looking for and grabbed it. He laid some money on the counter in case Harry accused Peter. Just before he left he saw something else and grabbed it too on a whim. 

Back out on the street he hailed a cab and the three of them piled in. From inside his jacket he retrieved the gift, a stuffed whale wearing a t-shirt that read: “The Oscorp Science Museum was a whale of a good time!” He handed it to Lucy who squealed, “Thank you, Way!” and squeezed her new toy. 

“Don’t think I forgot you, honey bunches of oats.” Wade told Peter. From his pocket he retrieved a necklace. It was a simple cord with a silver clasp and hanging from it was a glass orb the size of a gumball. The bioluminescent serum was inside, causing the orb to glow purple.

“Nice.” Peter said, smiling. “Are these gifts of the stolen variety?” He asked. 

“No!” Wade said. “I am appalled at the suggestion! I left money on the counter. It’s all good, baby boy.” Lucy fell asleep before they got home and when the cab came to a halt Wade offered to take her. 

“You have to unlock the door. And you can carry Whale-ium Shatner too.” Wade handed him Lucy’s new toy whale. 

“Whale-ium Shatner?” Peter asked with a smirk. 

“Would you prefer James Tiberius Krill?” Wade asked.

“You are too much sometimes, I swear.” Peter said, but he was grinning now and he couldn’t help it. Wade scooped up Lucy and carried her so that her head rested on one of his shoulders. They climbed the steps up to the apartment and Wade took Lucy to her room and put her to bed. When he came back out into the living room, Peter wasn’t there. He went to Peter’s room and found him standing by the bed holding the bloody Deadpool costume up to see the damage. 

“I have others.” Wade said, startling Peter. He turned to face Wade and the mercenary realized that he had put the necklace on. 

“I figured.” Peter said. “A healing factor like that probably warrants some crazy injuries.”

“Knowing you can’t die tends to make you a bit restless.” Wade admitted. 

“What did Lucy say when she saw your face?” Peter asked suddenly. Wade moved to sit on the edge of the bed. 

“She said I wasn’t scary.” He said. “I guess I apologized for scaring her. She really is a sweet kid. She didn’t flinch or stare, or anything.”

“Good.” Peter said curtly. “I’m glad she was kind to you… Why was your mask off?” 

“Last night I went out for a beer.”

“So, everyone in New York saw your face?” Peter asked. Wade nodded his head and shrugged.

“I guess so.”

“Then why not me, Wade?” Peter suddenly sounded so heart broken. 

“Because, Peter!” Wade burst. “You’re fucking special!”

“You trusted all those people and you don’t trust me! You trusted my fucking four year old daughter and not me, Wade!”

“You don’t know me, and I don’t owe you shit!” Wade spat. Peter paused, his face sinking. 

“I know you don’t owe me, Wade. I want you to trust me, and you don’t.” He said, sitting down next to Wade. “I’m not angry; I don’t know why I yelled… I think I’m just hurt. You’re a good man. I see that, and I trust you, but you don’t trust me.”

“It’s not about trust,” Wade said. “It’s about worth. You’re this vision of a man and you seem to have some interest in me. I’m weird, mysterious, I guess. Anyway, you see something in me that makes you want to kiss me and take me to museums and the minute you see my face, that’s all over. Peter, you’re not just out of my league… We’re not playing the same game here. You deserve a man or a woman who you can be proud to point out in a crowd, not one that sticks out in a crowd.”

“Wade…” Peter whispered. He leaned his head against Wade’s shoulder and wrapped his hands around a bicep. “It’s not like that. You’re charming and spontaneous and a little dangerous. I’m attracted to you for who you are. And from what I’ve seen of your body… Well, no one would mistake you for weak. I don’t care what you look like of what color eyes you’ve got. Who cares about hair color when the man is this alluring?” Wade flinched. “I’m just saying, I don’t know what it is that we have, but I would like to find out. Do you think you’ll ever trust me?” He asked. Wade looked up at the ceiling wondering which cosmic entity was planning his demise in that moment. 

“I don’t know.” He admitted. Peter slipped his fingers beneath the mask and folded it up to expose Wade’s mouth. 

“That wasn’t a no.” He said, moving to straddle the slightly larger man. He kissed Wade with every bit of emotion he had bottled up that day. Wade was surprised by the intensity at first, but he was quick to return it. Peter’s tongue moved against Wade’s lips and Wade parted them to deepen the kiss. Peter’s hands stroked down Wade’s back and dipped beneath the fabric of his shirt. Wade pulled away as if he had been shocked; his eyes wide like a deer in headlights. 

“Please,” Peter said. “I won’t look; I just want to touch you.” Wade captured his mouth again in agreement and Peter’s hands roamed up and over Wade’s back, feeling the mountains and valleys of scar tissue. Wade felt his hands travel up to the area he had been shot in earlier that day. No evidence was there, a few more scars on top of millions of others. 

Suddenly Wade flipped them, putting Peter on his back and straddling him on the bed. He leaned down to kiss Peter’s neck, revisiting the path those hickeys had taken however long ago. He wanted to add his own love bites, like an artist tags a brick wall. Peter’s pale skin was a perfect canvas. 

Wade sat up and stripped Peter of his shirt before leaning back down to bite and suck bruises onto his chest. There were a few hickeys there already that weren’t Wade’s and speculation of how they got there was enough to get Wade’s cock to go from hardening to hard in two seconds flat. He pressed himself against Peter’s thigh to show him what he was doing to him, and Peter gasped and moaned. 

“I thought you didn’t want to have sex?” Wade asked, feeling Peter’s erection against his abdomen. 

“I’m beginning to care less and less about that rule.” Peter breathed, arching his back and pressing harder against Wade. 

They were so wrapped up in one another; they almost didn’t hear the phone ring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying really hard to update regularly! I promise!


	7. Intimacy and Itching Powder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wade gets stuck babysitting Lucy while Peter is out with a client. They have a heart to heart that puts them in costume and forces Wade to meet Gwen for the first time. Wade questions his feelings for Peter and what Lucy thinks of him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said I was going to update regularly and that was a lie... I tend to get stuck for a month and then write 20 pages in one sitting. I hope you enjoy the next chapter, those of you still with me.   
> Also, a character in this chapter could easily be mistaken as the stereotypical Evil Vegan. She's not. She's intended to be a hipster or something similar. I have nothing against vegans.   
> That is all.

Peter paused very reluctantly. Wade kept his mouth against Peter’s collarbone, wishing the phone would stop ringing. It continued on, playing a bright little song that Peter knew belonged to a very specific John. Wade bit down in an attempt to regain Peter’s attention, but after a quick gasp and moan that went from pleasure to frustration Peter squirmed under Wade to reach into his pocket and retrieve his cellphone. 

“Hello?” Peter said into the phone, trying his best to breathe normally. Wade tried not to give in to the feeling of being ignored and overlooked, but it was hard. The man he was in bed with had just paused to take a phone call, what did that say about his feelings for Wade?

‘Fleeting.’ Said Yellow.

‘Non-existent.’ Said White.

“Enough!” Said Wade, hopping up to his feet and pacing the foot of the bed. Peter covered the mouthpiece of the phone and mouthed “I’m so sorry, it’s a business call.” Wade nodded, as if that made any difference. He would have ignored the phone, the doorbell, the apocalypse, and the Avengers to be in bed with Peter. Tony Stark himself could tap him on the shoulder and he wouldn’t halt in his rhythm. 

“Tonight?” Peter said, checking the clock beside his bed. “It’s nearly eleven o’clock… Tomorrow too? I don’t know… I’ll have to find a baby sitter…” Peter’s eyebrows shot up all of a sudden and he sat up straight. For a moment he was fixed in this position and then his eyes flashed to Wade’s face. “Let me call you back.” He hung up the phone and set it on the bed beside himself, staring at Wade with big puppy eyes.

“Wade…” He began. Wade narrowed his eyes.

“What?” He asked suspiciously.

“You know that I trust you, right?” Peter said. Wade nodded. “Well, I have a favor to ask.”

“If it’s killing someone for you, you should start a punch card. Get your sixth hit free.” Wade told him. Peter laughed out loud.

“Have I ever told you how much I enjoy your quick wit?” Peter asked. 

“Now I’m really worried.” Wade told him. “Stop stroking my ego—unless you wanna stroke my ego, if you know what I mean—and ask me the damn favor.”

“Have you ever seen the movie ‘Pretty Woman?’” Peter asked him. Wade was severely confused at this point. 

“Yeah.”

“I just got a call from a client and it’s a lot like that movie if you took out the feelings.” Peter said all at once. “He takes me to nice restaurants and he buys me designer dre- Um... Clothes. And he’s kind and he’s good looking and he pays so much money it would cover my rent for a month and he offered to triple it if I meet him at his penthouse suite in an hour. I know we were in the middle of something here but I swear we’ll pick right back up when I get home. He needs me tonight and then tomorrow through lunch.”

“Go ahead.” Wade said, which isn’t at all what he wanted to say. He knew there was no love in it for Peter but hearing him describe this John had made Wade’s insides twist around a little. 

“Well, that’s not the whole favor…” Peter said guiltily. 

“Lucy…?” Wade asked.

“Yeah. If I call Gwen to come and get her early then she’ll file it under our ongoing custody battle and use it in court.” Peter told him. “I just need for you to watch her until after lunch tomorrow.” 

“Peter, I’m a killer for hire. Don’t leave me your four year old.” Wade pleaded. 

“Have you ever killed a child?” Peter asked smugly.

“No!” Wade nearly shouted, horrified.

“Then I trust you not to kill mine. Look, just feed her and turn on PBS. She’ll be fine!” 

“I don’t know…” Wade was stalling, but he knew Peter was watching the clock. 

“She’ll be asleep for the majority of the time!” Peter was near begging at this point. Finally, Wade conceded.

“Fine. But if you’re not back by noon tomorrow I’ll kill you for free.”

“At least add it to my punch card after.” Peter joked. He was whirling around the room, grabbing a bag and stuffing clothes into it. Wade saw him trying to hide the straps of a glittering ball gown and smiled. He would love to see Peter in heels and an elegant dress. There was something sexy about a confident man in feminine clothing for Wade.   
Peter knelt down under the bed and pulled out a box about the size of four shoe boxes stuck together. A padlock dangled off of it and Peter rolled the numbers to the correct code to unlock it. When he opened it, Wade felt his entire body heat up. Every sex toy you could imagine was inside. There were vibrators, handcuffs, lengths of rope coiled up, paddles, gags, and a clear fleshlight. 

“Peter,” Wade choked out. “Did I finally die and go to hitman’s heaven? Is all of this yours?” 

“I own it all, yeah…” Peter’s face was flushed and red. “But I only use it for clients.”

“Why is the fleshlight clear?” Wade asked, struggling to breathe.

“So you can see what’s happening, I guess?” Peter said, trying to calm his furious blushing. Wade’s erection returned with a vengeance as he stared at the toy and imagined Peter’s cock visibly pushing into it. He felt the heat in his belly rise to an uncomfortable temperature as he pictured Peter’s face flushed with desire, mouth slightly open as he pushed himself into the toy. For a moment Wade actually felt like he would pass out until he added a John to the mental image. The fire inside of him moved up to his chest and his skin itched with contained anger. Peter had finished packing the bag by then and he gave Wade a sad smile. 

“We’ll pick up right where we left off, okay?” Peter said, sticking out his pinky like a toddler. Wade hooked his little finger into Peter’s and held on tight. Peter shook their hands and tried to pull away, but Wade held on. 

“Peter…” Wade’s voice was gravely and weak. He was bearing his soul here, even if it was just with a look. It occurred to him that Peter couldn’t see his eyes and for a fleeting moment he felt like he was ready to take the mask off and face Peter. But Peter’s look of confusion as Wade kept them joined together was enough to shake Wade’s confidence.   
“Wade?” Peter asked, looking concerned. 

“Peter,” Wade repeated, forcing himself to speak. “Don’t go.” He couldn’t meet Peter’s eyes but he saw the change in Peter’s expression change in his periphery. They still held each other’s pinkies in a childish covenant, and neither man moved. “I know there’s no intimacy in it… I know you don’t love these people, but I’m asking you, I’m trying not to beg, actually, please don’t go. I’m not the romantic type, but I want you to stay. We can light some candles.”

“Wade, this is more money than I’ll see in two months. This is my job.” Peter gently pulled his hand away and Wade got to his feet in a rush. 

“I’ll take off my mask.” Wade offered. Peter locked his eyes onto the white spots of Wade’s mask. 

“It’s not fair for you to use that.” Peter’s voice was dangerously low. 

“I know that, but all’s fair in-”

‘Don’t you dare!’ Yellow screamed. 

‘Shut your fucking mouth!’ White agreed. ‘Love ends in broken hearts and loose assholes.’

“Love and war?” Peter asked. “Are you saying you… Fuck, Wade, we have to talk about this when I get back!” Peter turned to leave the room, and hesitated in the doorway. “We’ll pick up where we left off tomorrow night… I mean that.” And he left. 

Wade flopped back down on the bed and onto his back. He was frustrated; both emotionally and sexually. He pulled his mask off and cast it to the foot of the bed. He understood that sex work was just a job, but he had seen Peter in action. He knew how convincing he could be. And even if Peter felt nothing for these people, the John’s sure felt something for him. He had regulars, people he saw often. This John had a personalized ring tone and Wade didn’t even have Peter’s cellphone number… He kicked off his shoes and climbed into the bed, smelling the sheets for Peter’s scent and wondering how many Johns could still smell this cologne after Peter was gone. 

“All’s fair in love and war. Son of a bitch.” He muttered, curling up in Peter’s bed and closing his eyes.

Wade felt as if he had been sleeping for five minutes when all of a sudden he wasn’t alone. He felt the weight of another person bounding onto the bed and all at once his brain was split between thoughts of Peter coming home to him and an assailant attacking while he slept. Thankfully he was alert enough to assess the situation and found Lucy bouncing up and down on the foot of the bed. 

“Way!” She shouted. Wade checked the clock on the bedside table and saw that it was seven-thirty a.m. 

“Yes?” He answered hoarsely. 

“Breakfast!” Lucy zipped off the bed and out the door toward the kitchen. Wade found he was smiling despite himself. Even though Peter had left him last night, Lucy was no burden. He got out of bed and reached for his mask. Turning it over in his hands he remembered Lucy’s words when they had first met: “You don’t scare me.” He dropped the mask back down and got up to get himself dressed. 

Lucy was in the kitchen, pulling things out of the refrigerator, but only what she could reach. Wade approached the counter and saw things like lettuce and jars of pickles piled there. 

“What do you want for breakfast?” Wade asked. Lucy smiled, dropping a block of cheese on the counter.

“Waffles.” She said. 

“Lettuce, pickles, and cheese waffles?” Wade asked. Lucy shrugged her small shoulders. “Alright, let’s get to work.” 

Lucy found the waffle iron and Wade set it up. He found a step stool so that she could help stir the batter once it was made. Together they decided on Chocolate chips, blueberries, strawberries, M&M’s, and bits of chopped bacon. Lucy was about as weird of an eater as Wade. While they cooked, Wade waited for Lucy to stare at his face. Each time she grabbed onto his arm or touched his hands, he waited for her to recoil, but she never did. She acted as if he were just another friend of the family, babysitting and making breakfast. 

Once the waffles were done, Lucy grabbed a bottle of ketchup and moved to the couch. Wade followed with his own bottle of hot sauce. They turned on the TV and some cartoon show with princesses was on. They watched in silence while they ate, Lucy putting away almost as many waffles as Wade. He found himself getting invested in the show, wondering what would happen next, laughing at the stupid jokes just as hard as Lucy. In the story, Princess Megan who is a stone cold bitch has a royal tea party and doesn’t invite Princess Lanie. Lanie is obviously upset by this and she tells her mother. 

‘Lanie, a princess must hold her head up high.’ The queen tells Lanie. ‘At school tomorrow you must still be kind and regal.’

‘But mom,’ Lanie whines. ‘Megan invited everyone else right in front of me!’

‘And that was mean. But that doesn’t mean you should be any less kind to her.’ The Queen says.

“Do you watch this a lot?” Wade asked. Lucy nodded. He cocked an eyebrow. 

“It’s called ‘Princess Academy” and it’s my favorite show. I like Princess Lanie. She’s pretty, and she’s nice. But she doesn’t have a lot of friends, just like me.” Lucy said with her mouth half full and a dab of ketchup on her cheek. 

“Well, her Mama needs some better advice.” Wade said. “If I were Princess Lanie I would have told Princess Megan where she could stick her tea set. She’s, like, ten years old and already icing out a classmate because she’s a step-princess and not one by birth? That’s classism. I mean, all of that about her wearing the wrong tiara to a dinner party? That’s not her fault, she doesn’t know all this shit!”

“What?” Lucy asked. “Lanie is a princess and princesses are always sweet and forgiving. She can’t be mean to Princess Megan or she won’t be a Princess anymore.”

“The King is still her step-dad! You need to watch Game of Thrones. Actually, don’t tell your dad I even said that. I just mean, if Megan is going to be a dick to Lanie, Lanie should fight back. Fire with fire. She should have her own tea party and not invite Megan, or she should go all “Carrie” on her and soak her in blood in front of everyone. I’m just saying.” Lucy considered all of this very quietly. “Why do you think you’re like Lanie?”

“Caroline M. had a birthday party last weekend and she invited everyone is the class but me.” Lucy blurted. Wade felt the blood behind his eyes start to boil. 

“What?” He asked. 

“She gave out invitations all covered in glitter with people’s name on them and there wasn’t one for me so I asked her and she told me that she didn’t want me there because her daddy hates my daddy and my mommy isn’t very nice.” Lucy’s eyes welled up with tears and Wade tried to remember a time he had been filled with this much rage. 

“Lucy, grab your backpack.” He said. 

O O O O

Wade knew he couldn’t kill Caroline M. so he had to think of something a five year old would be capable of. He got Lucy dressed and pulled her hair up into pig tails before rushing out of the house. They walked for a while to the nearest subway station and boarded a train up town. Lucy hung onto Wade’s back so she wouldn’t have to stand. Her little feet poked out from under his arms and he looked down and realized she wore mismatched shoes. He chuckled. Peter would kill him. Lucy was always very well dressed when Peter got her ready. Now she’s in one pink shoe and one blue shoe and wearing lopsided pigtails. At least he remembered to grab her a jacket. 

When the train stopped, the got off and exited the station. Wade had not calmed down since seeing Lucy so close to tears. He knew exactly what they were going to do and it would take three stops.

Stop Number One: a joke shop. 

“What are we doing here, Way?” Lucy asked. 

“You said that Caroline M. is in the science fair with you?” Wade asked. Lucy nodded, her pigtails bouncing. “Well, her project, which sounds stupid by the way, involves a parka?”  
“She’s doing a project on Native Americans and how they use everything from dead animals.” Lucy said. “Like thebones for tools and jewelry and the blood for dye, and the skin for clothes, and the fur for teepees, and-”

“Get to the jacket part.”

“Oh! Her daddy bought her a jacket and it’s made from… The cows with horns, but they're not cows?”

“Bulls?”

“No, that’s a boy cow. These aren’t cows. They have a lot of hair and really giant heads.”

“Ox?"

“Yeah! He bought her a jacket and some people made it from a Ox so she’s wearing it for her turn.” Lucy finished. 

“Right, well, there’s this awesome stuff from the olden days called ‘itching powder,’ and you, my little protégé, are going to pour the entire goddamn packet into that bitches jacket before her presentation… And also not tell your dad about my potty mouth, okay?”

“What happens? To Caroline M.?” Lucy asked. 

“She gets so itchy that she ruins her presentation and you win the science fair. Then you throw your own tea party and nobody invites Itchy Butt Caroline M.” Wade explained in an excited tone. He wanted vengeance for Lucy. Her face split into a wide grin and Wade tried not to imagine Peter’s face when he puts this all together and realizes Wade has corrupted his child.

Stop Number Two: a very tiny, pretentious bakery. 

He had prepped Lucy for this on the way over. This story was nice but very overpriced and known for their rude cashiers. Weasel had been thrown out once because he asked what the different in cruelty free icing was. But it was the best shit in town, and Lucy deserved the best.

The door hit a bell as it opened and a young woman came to the counter. She was dressed like a 1940’s house wife but her hair was half shaved and electric blue. She was also covered in tattoos. Wade wondered if her glasses were functional or fashionable. 

“I need a park picnic set up.” Wade asked. Her eyes grew when she glanced up at him and Wade remembered he wasn’t wearing the mask. He clenched his jaw. 

“What kind of set up?” She asked. So, she had decided not to be an asshole. 

“Tea for two and some cake and cookies.” Wade said. The woman raised a judgmental eyebrow. 

“Like… Hot tea in a kettle? We don’t sell tea sets here, we sell quality pastries and beverages.”

“Is tea not a beverage?” Wade asked. She rolled her eyes. 

“What, are you trying to impress a girl?” She asked dully. “I’m not in the business of helping you recreate some archaic date from your girlfriend’s favorite chick flick. I’m here to sell good food to people who don’t know what good food is.” 

“I guess I am trying to impress a girl.” Wade gestured to Lucy who was standing near the door, looking sad as Wade had instructed her to do. She sniffled when she saw them looking and gave a halfhearted wave. Wade felt pride well up in what he assumed was his heart area.

“My daughter, Lucy. She gets picked on in school a lot for having such an ugly dad,” he referenced his own face. “and today her goldfish died.”

“Oh...” The woman muttered. 

“I just wanted to give her a picnic in the park like her mother used to… before she killed herself.” He added.

“Jesus!”

“Right in front of Lucy…”

“Holy-”

“Just last week.” 

Lucy chose that moment to let out a long wail of sadness and Wade was afraid his jaw would break from trying not to smile. 

“Wait here!” The woman said, disappearing. She came back with an enormous wicker basket full to the bursting point. 

“This is one of our display baskets. It’s got everything in here you’ll need.” She said. “A tea set, a couple of cakes, enough cookies to last the winter, a blanket, some saucers, and a fifty dollar gift card to come back here any time you want. That kid has been through enough.”

“Thank you,” Wade told her. “It really means a lot to me. And her doctors say she can still her eat sweets for a little while. She’s got-”

“Look, man! I don’t want to know!” The woman exclaimed. “It’s too much! Jesus. This basket has everything you’ll need, take it. Keep it. It’s yours now.”

“God bless you.” Wade said. Just before Wade had ushered Lucy fully out the door the woman added, “You’re a good father, Mister!”

Wade tried to ignore how it felt to be considered Lucy’s father.

Third and Final Stop: an enormous costume shop. 

Wade left the basket at the front counter with an employee and took Lucy in to the back of the store to the children’s section. She looked around with big brown eyes filled with wonder. 

“Lucy, two things. One, let’s not tell your dad about that last scene we caused, okay? In fact, maybe don’t tell him about anything we’ve done today. And two… You’re a good kid. I don’t know why Miss Itchy Butt, formerly known as Caroline M., wouldn’t invite you to her party, but you don’t deserve that. You can be a princess if you want to be.”

“Or a dinosaur?” Lucy asked. Wade nodded. 

“Or a dinosaur.” He agreed. “What do you want to be today?” 

“Princess!” she exclaimed. 

“Alright, then. Let’s get started.” 

Wade grabbed a salesperson and had her measure Lucy and then pull every dress in her size down. For the next half hour Lucy tried on every princess costume known to man. Wade complimented each one and helped her when she needed a sash tied or a shoe buckled. It was a one-girl royal parade and Wade didn’t know who loved it more; him or Lucy.   
She tried on pink gowns that swallowed her up and green gowns with tulle up to her ears, a few blue gowns that brought out her eyes and some red that would make any Disney princess jealous. Wade had seen this shop on TV. Rich parents spent hundreds of dollars on costumes for their kids here. At the time he thought it was ridiculous, but whenever Lucy smiled he knew he would pay 1,000 dollars to see it again. 

In the end she settled on an orange gown with white bows all over it. It was a short sleeved dress with a skirt that poofed up like a cupcake. White lace swept the ground at Lucy’s feet and she wore white gloves up to her elbows. 

“Beautiful.” Wade told her, handing a big wad of cash to the salesperson. 

“Will that be all?” The woman asked. 

“Yeah.” Wade told her. Lucy twirled around in the mirror, adjusting her tiara, and Wade watched her giggling. 

“Lucy, I was thinking we could go to the park for tea and maybe do more pigeon research.”

“Okay!” Lucy said, smiling. She started to go into the dressing room to change. 

“Wait, kid. You can keep that on. It can be our own royal tea party.” Wade told her. She considered it. 

“If I’m a princess, you have to be a King or a Queen.” She said. Wade laughed but Lucy remained serious. 

“You mean that?” He asked. 

“I can’t be a princess alone!” She said. Wade nodded. When the saleswoman came back Wade asked her to pull a few costumes in his size. Then it was Lucy’s turn to watch Wade parade around in costume after costume. An uncomfortable salesperson watched as he tried on suits and gowns alike. 

“That one! That one!” Lucy decided on his sixth or seventh appearance. He was dressed like any generic King in the movies; boots with khaki pants tucked into them, a white button down with pearl buttons and a cummerbund, a regal jacket in royal blue with gold accents, and a crown. Wade looked at himself in the mirror. 

“As you wish, Princess.” He said. He went to the front of the store to buy all of the costumes and on his way he passed a rack of masquerade style masks. His fingertips itched. This costume would bring a lot of attention to him, which meant his face would be more on display than ever. He would be more than just a passing face, he would be the man with the warped skin dressed as a zombie king with a small girl who deserves better company. 

“Way.” Lucy said.

“Yeah.” He asked. 

“Um… This is lots of money, isn’t it.” 

“Don’t worry about that.” He assured her. “Why are you asking? Is there something else you want?” 

“No.” She said. “There’s something you want.” She picked up a gold mask that seemed to be made from metal creeping vines. The pattern was tight around the face but there were windows for the eyes. It only covered the top half of the face, and had small gaps in it, but it was something. Wade took it from her and swallowed the knot in his throat before sliding it over his face. Before he could speak Lucy grabbed another mask, a much smaller one. It was white and porcelain, daintier than his and with flowers around one side. It matched Lucy’s dress perfectly and she turned around so that Wade could tie it in the back. 

“I won’t be a princess alone so you don’t gotta be alone either.” She announced. Wade hadn’t been this close to tears in his life. He took her up to the counter to pay for their costumes and retrieve their basket and they went together to Central Park for tea and a picnic on the grass. A few tourists snapped pictures, and some joggers stopped to tell Lucy how pretty she was. Overall, Wade felt that it was a good day.

O O O O  
They got home right around twelve thirty, Wade carried Lucy in through the front door and dropped the spare key on the counter. He took Lucy into her room and helped her into her pajamas for a nap. He even took the time to hang up her dress and pick up her room a bit. Then he turned on the whale sound machine and then went into the kitchen to clean up from breakfast. Something had him in a domestic mood today.

There was a knock at the door just as Wade was halfway done with the kitchen. He still had on his costume, minus the jacket. He figured, Peter had seen the bottom half of his face before, who cared if the mask was different. 

“It’s open!” He called out. The door swung open and there stood the most severe woman Wade had ever laid eyes on. 

“Who the hell are you and where is my daughter?” She demanded. Her voice came straight from her diaphragm and filled the room. Wade was taken aback.   
“Are you Gwen?” He asked.

“I am, and again, who the hell are you?” She repeated. She was petite and blonde with sharp blue eyes and an intense posture about her. She wore a black skirt suit that had to be designer and makeup that was red-carpet-ready. Her hair was shoulder length and tucked behind one ear with a black barrette. 

“My name is Wade. Peter just went out for a minute and asked me to watch Lucy.” Wade said slowly. 

“And who are you?” She asked a third time.

“Wade…?” He replied. 

“In relation to my ex-husband.” She clarified. 

“Oh! I’m just a friend of Peter’s.” 

“A friend or a John?” She asked. 

“My name is Wade, not John.” He shot back. She arched an eyebrow and Wade felt himself getting defensive. 

“I’m here to pick up Lucy.” She said. 

“I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for Peter to get home. I’ve never met you. I can’t just hand over my friend’s daughter to you.” He said. “You could be lying. You could be a serial killer or a kidnapper, or some freak that turns children into soap.” 

“You’re kidding.” She said. 

“I’m known for being a very funny man, but this is no joke.” He said with a sudden harshness. “You don’t get the kid until Peter is here to give me the O.K.”

“Fine.” She spat. She went to the kitchen table and sat down, opening her purse and pulling out a notepad. “What’s your full name?” She asked.

“What are you doing?”

“A background check the moment I get home.” She said. “Peter left my daughter with a perfect stranger and I want to know if you’re trustworthy.”

“Wade Winston Wilson.” He answered. She paused, hand poised over the pad. 

“That can’t be true.” She accused. He shrugged. 

“I’d show you my license but I don’t have one.” He offered. He would have a record the length of the Great Wall of China, but a hit ordered by the local District Attorney could make that go away with one simple phone call. 

“Take off that mask so I can match you to potential mug shots.” She commanded. Wade obliged, hoping his face would scare her or at least make her jump. No response. 

“Burn victim?” She asked. Damn, she was blunt.

“Wood chipper related incident.” He lied. She blinked twice, and Wade made a mental note of it. That was her ‘tell.’

“I’m sorry.” She responded. 

“Are you?” Wade asked. “You know, I’ve heard you’re interested in photography. Maybe you could take some pictures of my fucked up face and send them out to your mailing list.” She blinked twice again. 

“I don’t know what you mean.” She said. Liar. Just as she asked him for his social security number, the door opened. Wade lunged for his mask and took off toward the bedroom. 

“Wade?” Peter called out. Wade ignored him. He tied the mask back around his face and grabbed his sweat shirt, pulling up the hood. After taking a deep breath, he went back into the living room and nearly fell over from the force of the tension in the air. 

“Wade, I see you’ve met Lucy’s mother.” Peter said slowly.

“I did.” Wade responded. 

“He refused to give me my daughter.” She said. 

“I told her to wait for you since I had never met her before.” Wade clarified. 

“He claims he’s not a John, but I find that hard to believe.” Gwen accused. 

“Damnit, Gwen! You took two years of my life already. I missed Lucy’s first fucking day of pre-school!” Peter exploded. “What else do you want?”

“Right now?” She cocked her head to the side, her eyes glinting and dangerous. “I want to pick up my daughter on time, which was five minutes ago.” 

“Take her!” Peter shouted. 

“She’s napping.” Wade said, almost inaudibly. 

“I’ll get her.” Gwen snapped, stalking across the apartment and into Lucy’s room. There was a moment of silence where Wade looked at Peter and Peter ground his teeth. 

“I’m sorry.” Wade said. 

“You did the right thing. If you had handed Lucy over she would have tried to sue me for you giving our daughter to what could be a stranger. There’s no winning.” Peter said through his teeth. 

Gwen came through the living room holding Lucy’s hand. “Tell your father goodbye, Lucy.”

“Goodbye, Daddy.” Lucy said sleepily. “Goodbye, Way.” Gwen swept her out the door and slammed it behind herself leaving Peter and Wade standing in the kitchen, bobbing in her wake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHEN WILL THAT DAMN MASK COME OFF!? Lol. Only I know. Anyway, my outline shows that there's only going to be three more chapters, so it's about to heat up.   
> Thank you for reading and I hope you'll be patient with me for future updates.


	8. New Territory and a Name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It finally happens... They do the thing.   
> And Wade immediately bails because   
> he's a giant baby who can't let Peter love   
> him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to stop telling you all that I'll update more regularly, because that's just a lie at this point...  
> I promise I'm trying!! Anyway, enjoy.

The silky sheets of Peter’s bed were bunched up and thrown to the floor, leaving only the fitted sheet beneath Wade’s back. Never in his life had he imagined Peter to be this forceful. Carefully forceful, he thought. His back arched up off the bed, forcing his cock further into Peter’s mouth and down his throat. The man had no gag reflex. Still, Wade tried to control his hips from fucking down Peter’s throat. From his kneeling posture at the foot of the bed, Peter hummed around Wade’s dick and smirked at the response. 

“I can… Feel you… Smirking.” Wade said between heaving breaths. 

“Did I finally silence that mile-a-minute mouth of yours?” Peter asked before licking back up Wade’s shaft and taking him in again. Wade squeezed his eyes shut and prayed to whoever was listening that he didn’t finish after only two minutes.

The moment Gwen was out the door with Lucy, Peter flew into a rage. He stalked around the kitchen, throwing dishes into the sink and slamming cabinets shut. 

“I was going to do all that.” Wade offered. Peter ignored him and continued his whirlwind around the room. Wade watched with anxious eyes for a while until Peter ran out of blankets to fold and plates to clear and turned on Wade.

“Why are you dressed like that?” He asked. Wade froze, trying to control his breathing. More of his face was exposed now than ever. 

“Lucy and I had a royal tea party.” He started toward the bedroom to change, but Peter grabbed his sleeve. Wade didn’t turn to look at him. It was too close, too personal. After a few seconds, Peter released him and Wade hurried off to change. 

When he came back out, Peter was loading up the dishwasher with the contents of the sink. Wade was back in his usual long sleeves and Deadpool mask. Peter didn’t even look up. Together, they silently cleaned up the apartment. When there was nothing else to do, Wade started down the hall to the study where his air mattress was still set up, but before he could shut the door Peter erupted.

“What the fuck, Wade?!” He shouted. Wade physically jumped.

“Jesus, Petey, trying to give a guy a heart attack?” Wade asked. Peter’s face was flushed and Wade wasn’t sure if it was anger or embarrassment. 

“You! You Fucking-! Ugh!” Peter growled. He stalked down the hall to Wade who was standing with his back against the doorjamb of the study. They both realized the parallel at the same time and Wade’s mind wandered back to thoughts of fucking Peter against the wall. Wade was a good few inches taller than Peter, and the muscular frame of his body was thicker and wider than Peter’s as well, but with Peter’s furrowed brow, and their proximity, Wade felt his knees get weak. It was as if all of his mass had been reduced into the squirming arousal deep in the pit of his belly. 

“Why did you start to eat with your mask rolled up?” Peter demanded. His expression felt domineering. Wade wanted to be the mewling submissive at his feet. He wanted so badly to be at Peter’s mercy, but he knew that would mean no mask, and he couldn’t do it. 

“Convenience?” Wade offered. Peter raised one eyebrow and Wade felt it like a jab of a finger to the chest. 

“I don’t buy that.” Peter said. “I just don’t think that you would show me your face, however little, on a whim. Although you did go around New York unmasked again today, and with my four year old.”

“Peter…” Wade felt his guts twist around. All the talk of trust from the museum had caused some uncharacteristic guilt to well up. 

“I know it’s different, and I’m proud of Lucy for making you feel so comfortable, but I have to say I’m a little hurt.” Peter ranted. Wade tried to interrupt him. 

“It’s actually kind of a funny story.” Wade began. 

“Did you start to tell me you loved me last night?” Peter asked. Neither man breathed for a moment. The air had an electricity to it that Wade could hear crackling. It was like being submerged in water, no sound but his own heartbeat heavy in his ears. He needed air.

And then Wade said: “I followed you to one of your calls and watched you fuck some chocolate princess senseless.” Peter looked as if Wade had slapped him.

“Then I followed you to another one where you dressed like something out of a J-Pop themed wet dream and took it up the ass by a man who looked like a thin, less douchey Tony Stark.” It was like word vomit, a condition of which Wade was a lifetime sufferer. Peter blinked a few times and opened his mouth.

“Wade…” Peter said, his words catching in his throat as if he needed a bit more prompting. 

“Yes?” 

“You said… You said ‘all is fair in…’” Peter’s confidence dropped. 

“Peter, did you not hear me?”

“I heard you.” Peter confirmed. “But when I was with Sean all I could think about was what you had said…”

“His name is Sean?” Wade asked, jealousy building up in his body like pressure in a shaken soda can.

“He was his usual self, spending money like there was no tomorrow, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what you said.”

“Forget what I said.” Wade told Peter. “I was just trying to get laid without having to show you my ugly mug.”

“See, I don’t believe that.” Peter said. He placed his hand flat on Wade’s chest and both men watched him splay his fingers out over the fabric. Peter could feel the ridges of Wade’s skin through the shirt, and he longed to feel that skin with his own.

“Why not?” Wade inquired. 

“You’re a man with more money than most people would ever see in their life time but you live with me instead of buying your own place or getting a hotel room.” Peter said.

“I like free food.” Wade defended himself.

“And if you wanted to get laid, you could have used some of that abundant money to buy some time.” Peter reminded him.

“Oh.” Wade muttered. 

“Oh.” Peter nodded his head. He looked tired, but Wade didn’t know if it was from his sleepless night or the interaction with Gwen. The lines of Peter’s face seemed suddenly much deeper than a twenty-seven year old man’s should be. The darkness under his eyes was similar to a bruise at this point. Wade wanted to wrap him up and hold him while he slept until he looked like the angel he had been when they first met.

“You’re not mad?” Wade asked instead. “That I followed you?” Peter shrugged.

“It was a huge invasion of privacy, but I kind of get it.” He said. “You were curious about my job. Maybe jealous? You wanted to see what it’s like.” 

“I did.” Wade admitted. “But all this talk of trust… I don’t know what made you trust me in the beginning, but that was about as bad a decision as Jane Fonda accepting the roll of ‘Barbarella.’”

“And… did you like what you saw?” Peter asked, blushing. He lifted a hand and pressed it flat against Wade’s chest, splaying his fingers across the cotton fabric. 

“Are you not hearing me, Baby Boy?”

“I love it when you call me that.” Peter breathed. Wade couldn’t control himself any longer. Heat took over his body and he knew that this spark between them was about to erupt into a full blown flame. He leaned down in one swift motion and spread his hands across Peter’s ass. He lifted him up just as quickly and Peter instinctively wrapped his legs around Wade’s waist. As Wade marched down the hallway to the bedroom, Peter nuzzled into his neck at the inch of exposed flesh between his mask and the collar of his shirt. Shutting the bedroom door and pressing Peter’s back against it, Wade pulled the mask up over his mouth. 

“I want to keep my mask on.” Wade huffed.

“I understand.” Peter told him. “I don’t like it, but I understand.”

“And about earlier…”

“Later.” Peter interrupted. “We can talk about love and war later.”

So, here they were, Wade deliciously deep in Peter’s mouth, having the time of his life. Peter pulled off with a ‘Pop!’ and looked up at Wade with his doe eyes.

“Top or bottom?” He asked. 

“Yes.” Wade responded, grabbing him under his jaw and pulling him up into another kiss. Peter tasted hot; like sweat and musk. Wade felt Peter’s tongue slide along his own and he realized it may be time to calm down. It couldn’t be attractive to Peter how eager Wade was. He broke their kiss and flopped back onto his back to let Peter continue. And continue Peter did. Wade was thankful for the mask since he was pretty sure his eyes were crossing. Peter’s mouth was his new favorite thing.

“Damn, Petey… That mouth!” He moaned. Peter took that moment to run his tongue around the end of Wade’s dick slowly enough to drive him insane. 

This went on for some time; Peter sucking him nearly to completion and then backing off until Wade was about ready to combust. Finally Peter started to bob his head in something closer to a rhythm and Wade felt himself right on the brink. 

“Yes!” He cried out. He was seconds from orgasm, nanoseconds even, when he sat up and pulled Peter off of him by his hair. Peter bared his teeth at the sharp and sudden pain and Wade wanted that expression tattooed into his scarred and ragged skin. Peter’s brown eyes were heavy lidded and his full lips were swollen from rough kisses and frenzied blowjobs. Wade’s fingers tightened their hold to try and recreate the fleeting expression of annoyance. 

“Something you want, Deadpool?” Peter asked. Wade grinned at the use of his mercenary name. 

“I want to fuck you.” Wade responded. His voice was hushed but Peter was all ears. 

“Sure thing.” Peter got to his feet and Wade took the opportunity to raise himself to his full height and tuck himself back into his pants. He pulled Peter close and knitted his fingers in his hair, tilting that gorgeous face back to expose his long, pale throat. Wade resisted the urge to bruise that delicious expanse of skin and instead pressed his thin lips against it. Peter seemed eager to move on. Wade could see his arousal bulging in his jeans, but Wade wanted this to be slow and sweet. He had seen Peter in the act before, but never felt him breathing, never been the recipient of that intense attention. 

He pulled Peter’s clothes off slowly; unwrapping him like a Christmas present. First his shirt came off and Wade dipped his half-masked head to cover a preexisting hickey with his own mouth. He sucked it darker, wondering if Sean took his time with Peter and appreciated him for the angel he was. Then came the belt and the jeans. Peter gave a slight gasp when Wade’s fingers pressed against him to release the button and zipper and Wade felt a tug in his chest at the sound. Then the mercenary sank to his knees, dragging the fabric of Peter’s briefs with him until he was eye level with Peter’s very impressive cock. Several more hickeys covered Peter’s skin around his thighs and Wade had to push back the jealousy that threatened to overtake him. 

Before either man could move, Wade wrapped his bare hand around it and took the end of it into his mouth. Peter tossed his head back with a short guttural sound and tried to steady himself. The rough texture of Wade’s hand was surprisingly erotic. As the man on his knees slid his palm around Peter in rhythm, Peter’s breathing nearly stopped. Even his chapped lips caused small pangs of pleasure to shoot up Peter’s body. 

Wade was greedy for him. There was no way of taking all of him into his mouth without Peter throat-fucking him, but Wade was determined to try. His hand was still wrapped around Peter’s dick, covering what length Wade couldn’t fit into his mouth. He bobbed his head in a hurried pace, eager to bring Peter’s slim body to orgasm, but Peter was eager for something else and so he pulled Wade away, agonizingly slowly. With one last lick up from the base of Peter’s cock, Wade got where Peter was going and got up. He walked around the side of the bed to sit with his back against the head board. As Peter crossed to join him, Wade hurriedly pulled down the waist band of his pants to free himself again. The cold air hit his flushed skin and he hissed. He was still slick from Peter’s mouth. 

Peter climbed onto the bed and straddled him, Wade’s dick lay heavily against the base of his belly. 

“I can’t talk you into taking off the mask?” Peter asked. Wade squirmed.

“I’m sure you could find a way to convince me, Baby Boy.” He responded. “But I would rather you didn’t.” Peter nodded and raised himself up to reach the drawer of his nightstand. He produced a bottle of lube, small and unopened; a stash for his personal life, not his work. He pulled the plastic off the lid, face slightly red, and tossed it aside before cracking it open and pouring a bit onto his fingers. He handed Wade the bottle and nodded his head to indicate Wade should do the same then he wrapped his slicked up hand around Wade’s cock. The mercenary followed as quickly as he could, dripping Lube onto his fingers and rubbing it around to coat them. He put his free hand onto Peter’s hip and used his wet fingers to find Peter’s entrance. 

When he pressed the first finger to it, Peter hummed with pleasure, expectantly. Wade was trying to take his time, to ready Peter for his girth, but Peter wasn’t waiting. He fucked himself backwards onto Wade’s finger, taking it all at once and wanting more. It occurred to Wade that Peter wouldn’t need as much prep considering how often he has anal sex, so he withdrew and pressed in two fingers, stretching his lover out as best he could. Then came the third. This one Peter slowed down for. Wade fucked him slowly, curling those fingers up to brush against the spongey texture of Peter’s prostate. Once Peter had picked up a bit of speed and Wade felt he was sliding in and out of him more comfortably, he withdrew his hand and lined himself up with Peter’s hole. 

“Look at me.” Wade demanded. Peter’s brown eyes found Wade’s, his expression foggy and slack with sex. With both hands on Peter’s hips, he guided the smaller man down onto his length. Peter’s mouth opened, his head tilting up, and he exhaled as he sank down until he was filled. The texture of Wade’s cock was beyond description. Peter felt each dip and ridge in the skin, however small; he was hyperaware of it all. They stayed like this for a moment, Wade looking into those eyes he could write songs about and Peter looking into the white lenses of that mask he wanted so badly to remove, and finally Wade couldn’t stand it anymore. His chest rose and fell rapidly, Peter’s hands fisted in the fabric of his shirt, and he dug his fingers into the fleshy roundness of Peter’s thighs, snapping his hips back and forth, driving himself more and more into Peter’s ass. 

They couldn’t maintain eye contact. Wade wasn’t sure who broke first, but he didn’t care. The pleasure was so intense for the both of them that neither man uttered a sound. The room was silent aside from the ragged breathing and small grunts of effort from Wade as he found a rhythm inside of his lover. Peter’s face was pressed against Wade’s head, his arms looped around the mercenary’s neck, and Wade had his arms around Peter’s back, hands spread wide to support the smaller man. Together, they moved in time, Wade’s cock brushing against Peter’s prostate every so often, until Peter broke the silence and began to moan. His sounds were needy and Wade wanted to fulfill his need. 

Wade reached between them, wrapping on hand around Peter’s dick and fisting it in time with the thrusts of his hips. Peter’s bones turned to jelly and Wade wrapped his free arm around his back tighter. He couldn’t support Peter’s body and keep his pace at the same time, so he paused in his motions and rose to his knees on the bed all while still inside of Peter. He laid Peter down on his back and Peter wrapped his legs around the mercenary’s waist. From this position Wade could return to his unforgiving rhythm and stroke Peter at the same time. 

Peter’s hands roamed over Wade’s body; underneath his shirt to feel his skin, over his shoulders for leverage, but eventually the settled flat on Wade’s chest again. Wade felt himself started to come apart and he stroked Peter harder and faster to try and make up for it. 

“Wade….” Peter breathed, and that was the end of Wade’s limited control. He came with a shout, pressing his face to the bare skin of Peter’s neck and resisting the urge to bite down. Peter felt him finish, and soon followed after, Wade’s hand still pumping him between them. They stayed like that for a while, Wade’s heavy breathing the only sound in the room, until Peter leaned up to kiss Wade. It was short and sweet, less lust and more feeling. Wade pulled out of Peter and Peter whined at the absence. He picked his shirt up from where it had been cast aside at the foot of the bed and used it to clean the cum off of his belly. Wade watched with a hungry expression. 

“Wanting more?” Peter asked. While Wade’s refractory period was fairly nonexistent, guilt had started to seep into him and he knew he would break down if he was made to speak. So instead, he laid himself down and pulled Peter’s back against his chest, hoping to preserve the afterglow. 

So much had happened in one day, Wade thought. He’d babysat for the first time, met Gwen, come clean with Peter, and finally gotten to fuck him all in one go. That was all after he had nearly declared his love for Peter and Peter had abandoned him for ‘Sean,’ the Richard Gere to Peter’s apparent Julia Roberts. After lying there, tangled up in each other’s bodies and soaked in sweat for a while, Peter had drifted off to sleep in Wade’s arms. Wade got up carefully from the bed. Peter was a hard enough sleeper, he remembered from the last time he had sneaked out of bed. 

Wade very carefully slipped out of his clothes and walked naked down the hall to retrieve his suit. This was suddenly too much for him. He had finally gotten to be with Peter in a way he didn’t know if he would ever get to experience. He was still reeling from joy and orgasm, feeling truly happy for the first time in a long while. Wade didn’t intend to stick around and ruin that by discussing his near-declaration with Peter. 

Wade made his way to Sister Margaret’s without a care in the world. Having had his brain destroyed more times than he could count made him great at compartmentalizing. He felt himself start to skip. This was better than killing Francis. This was better than anything that had ever happened to Wade. He reached into the numerous pockets of his suit and plugged the headphones that hung from his bag into a Walkman. He was going on a hit today!

Pushing the 80’s style headphones over his ears, he readjusted them. The mask made it awfully hard to get them snug in the right place. He ducked into the bar when he arrived, pausing the Beasty Boys for a moment and threw his hand up at Weasel. The smaller man approached, a dishrag and glass ever present in his hands. 

“Speak of the devil and Wade Wilson appears.” Weasel greeted him. “Do you have a sixth sense for people saying your name?”

“Yes I do.” Wade told him. “So if you could stop saying my name when you masturbate in the stockroom, I would appreciate it.”

“What me and my ‘Firefighters Monthly’ calendar enjoy together is none of your business.” Weasel joked. “You want a beer?” 

“I want to be emotionally available to the twink I left in my bed back home, but a beer sounds good too.” 

“That’s heavy.” Weasel filled a glass and set it down in front of Wade. Pushing the headphones down around his neck, Wade pulled the mask off completely and shoved it into a pocket. He downed the beer in one go and nodded for another.

“Are you here to drink away the pain?” Weasel teased. Wade held up one finger and he chugged the second beer. “Or are you here to empty the Yeingling keg?” 

“Is this Yeingling?” Wade asked. “No wonder it tastes like sweaty balls.”

“A taste you are all too familiar with.”

“Spandex doesn’t breathe, asshole. And I’m here for a job. Got anything for me?” Wade demanded, making grabbing gestures with both hands. Weasel reached under the bar and pulled out a gold plated card with a name etched into it. 

“There’s another one here when you’re done with that one.” Weasel said, passing Wade the card. 

“Awesome.”

O O O O

It was a drug den; an old, falling down building with moss and creeper vine choking off all exits but one. The target was inside. The name was given up by a mother who wanted her son to come home. Apparently he got into some trouble out of high school and was an addict at twenty-two years old. The mother blamed a man name Rodney Sharp. She claims that he was the reason her kid shot up. Wade had other ideas about that cause, but a quick search through the local police database showed that Mister Rodney Sharp had quite a few prior convictions including some small possession charges, an assault charge and the nail in the coffin: a sexual assault charge he ended up serving two years for. He deserved more. The girl was underage.

Wade pushed the front door open, taking the time to restart his Walkman and re-fit the headphones just right. It was actually kind of beautiful in here, he thought. The roof had fallen in some places, letting in natural light that filtered through the vines that had grown over the openings. The building had been mainly cleared out before it was condemned, so the eye was naturally drawn to the high ceilings and enormous windows. Then inevitably the eye finds its way to a door that had been opened with a crowbar. The bottom few stairs were visible from where Wade stood and he happily hopped up them. He called out, unable to hear his own voice over the Beasty Boys reading him his party rights. When he reached the top of the stairs he came out into a room filled with hulking men sitting around and scrawny men lying on filthy mattresses. He recognized Rodney immediately, but he was blocked by two giant men with cocked eyebrows, staring him down. One of them opened his mouth, presumably to ask Wade what he was doing, who the fuck he thinks he is, etc. Wade pointed to his earphones and shrugged as if to say “I can’t hear you, sorry!” and the two men stood up. Wade threw up his hands and backed up a bit, feigning fear, and then flew forward quickly enough to take them both off guard.

He scaled the slightly larger one like a monkey climbing a tree and hooked a thigh around the man’s throat. Then, bending backward gymnast-style, he punched the other one in the face, breaking his nose and opening a floodgate of blood. 

“You know,” He said. “You should really wear badges.” He tightened his death grip and listened to the hulk of a man sputter.

“That way I know what to call you!” He shrugged. “I know! I’ll name you myself. You!” he bent backwards again, nearly taking the first man down. “Will be Wilbur. And you!” he lashed his free leg out as the other man stood back to his full height, connecting with his jaw and setting him off balance again.

“You will be Babe.” He twisted around on Wilbur’s shoulders until he was smothering the man with his crotch. “Get it? You’re both pigs.” And with that he snapped Wilbur’s neck between his hands, riding his falling body to the ground and hopping off effortlessly at the last moment. He stalked toward Rodney, fire in his eyes, and stopped about a foot away. 

“You’ve been a naughty boy.” He said, leaning down until his face was an inch from the Rodney’s. Rodney looked miles away; high on whatever he was selling school children, no doubt. “I did a little reading last night and it turns out that you are a fucking amoeba… I don’t really know what an amoeba is, but you are one. A nasty little parasite that hurts people and assaults women. So, I’m here to rid the world of your nasty little diseased soul, and collect a huge ass paycheck from his mom.” He gestured to the kid who was lying on a mattress, breathing rapidly with his eyes shut. 

“He thinks this is a bad trip.” Wade chuckled. “But it’s cold, hard reality.” Wade raised his fist to knock out a few of Rodney’s teeth when he felt a bullet tear through his hip. He turned around quickly to see Babe with a gun pointed at him. He growled in frustration, freeing one of his guns and taking aim in less than a second. The bang of the gun was full volume despite the headphones. Babe’s head popped backward when the bullet entered his skull and Wade cussed.

“You made my Walkman skip!” Wade fumbled with the outdated machine until his music started back up. “There we go! All better. I forgive you, Babe.” He addressed the dead body. 

Turning swiftly to pistol whip Rodney, who had slowly gotten up onto his knees, Wade pointed his gun at his employer’s son. “Time for you to go home and apologize to your mother, you little shit. She had to take out a second mortgage to afford me.” The man got to his feet and ran, tripping and falling just outside of the door and then getting clumsily back up to escape. Wade shrugged and turned back to Rodney. 

“Now, why would you be hiding out in a falling down building with body guards and a twenty two year old who can hardly afford to pay his own phone bill?” Wade asked, pressing the muzzle of his gun to Rodney’s head. The man was shaking, tears streaming down his face and his nose running. Wade fought with the sympathy that welled up in his chest, thinking of the girl’s life that Rodney had ruined. This man didn’t deserve to breathe. Wade pulled off his headphones. 

“I’m sorry, man.” Rodney choked out. “I’ll stop. I’ll stop everything. I’ll get clean.”

“I’m not here to check you into rehab. I’m here to check you out of existence.” Wade snarled. 

“Please, stop. Please don’t do this. Stop. Stop!” Rodney begged. Wade pressed his gun harder into the man’s skin. 

“Is that what Sidney Hall said?” Wade asked. 

“Who?” Rodney choked out, looking genuinely confused. 

“The sixteen year old you raped four years ago.” Wade reminded him. “Did she beg you to stop? Because you didn’t. You took away her humanity and her voice… So I’ll be taking yours.” 

“That will make you a murderer! You can’t just kill me in cold blood. Then you’ll be like me.” Rodney said. He looked proud of himself, like he had found a loophole. Wade leaned down until they were eye to eye. He pulled his mask off to give Rodney a good look.

“I may be a murderer… but at least I’m not a rapist.” Wade said in a low voice. Then, before Rodney could speak or wipe the horrified expression off of his face, Wade pulled the trigger and filled his skull with lead.

With a small can of lighter fluid and a match Wade set the whole place on fire. He couldn’t risk the client’s son being brought in on suspicion of murder. After watching the building burn for a while, he took the gold card to the client to tell her the job was done. She handed him an envelope full of cash and he looked inside. The full amount was there… And he couldn’t take it. He slipped a 100 dollar bill out “for dry cleaning” and insisted she keep the rest. He could see her son lying on the couch in the living room from where he stood. There was a quilt draped over him and a wet rag on his forehead. 

“Use it for rehab.” Wade suggested. “Get the kid clean. He’s young, he’ll bounce back.” 

“Thank you so much, Deadpool… Thank you.” The woman said, closing the door to tend to her son. Wade checked his phone. If he hurried, he could make it to Sister Margret’s before last call.

When he arrived, Weasel had rung the bell and the people sitting at the bar had started to clear out. A few games of pool were still going on and the ever-present woman wearing hardly nothing was still waiting on a client. 

“Back already?” Weasel asked. 

“I missed you. I love you. I can’t live without you.” Wade responded in a monotone.

“You sound like my mother.” Weasel quipped. 

“Dude, I don’t have time for you Oedipus complex right now. Just give me the name.” He held out a gloved hand and Weasel ducked behind the bar to fetch it. He popped back up and dropped the card on the bar next to Wade’s outstretched hand. Wade gave him an exhausted look and Weasel smiled before hurrying off to break up another fight. Wade turned to watch the outcome, glancing at the name on the card…. And then glancing back in surprise and dread.

“Fuck.” Wade said. He felt like he had been punched in the stomach. “Fuck, no.” 

The gold card in his hand shone in the dull lights of the bar, and Wade felt like he would be sick. Never had a name on a card meant anything to Wade other than a paycheck and now… 

In dark letters etched into it, the card read: “Gwen Stacey.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! The next chapter will be on track for where I've been taking this. I think there should be two after this one and then maybe an epilogue. Thank you all so much for sticking with me. I'm shit at updating, but I love you all for giving me kudos and continuing to read my work. <3 (:


	9. Risk and Ransom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter and Wade have a falling out over the hit on Gwen Stacey but they're brought back together when something terrifying happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, guys. This is the fastest I have ever updated! Woohoo!  
> This chapter contains topics that could be very intense for some people, so if you're afraid of being triggered, read the following tags. If not, skip them. They could spoil some bits of the chapter.
> 
> -Slut-shaming  
> -Kidnapping  
> -Child endangerment  
> Each of these is very mild in my opinion, but I don't want anyone to be upset by this. If you want, you can contact me and I'll give you a summary so that you can keep reading without the upsetting details.   
> Enjoy!

Peter woke up in the early morning to an empty bed. A part of him wasn’t surprised at the absence of his lover, but the overwhelming majority of his emotions were focused on being hurt. He got up, muscles aching from last night’s activities and went to the mirror. Stretching out his sore body, he admired the love bite on his chest. Sean had left it there originally, he knew, but He could see the specific outline of Wade’s mouth, that gorgeous mouth that had made the mark slightly crooked and much darker than it had originally been. Wade was a passionate man, he thought, tracing it with his fingers. Too passionate, maybe. He was so drawn in, always in his own head, putting words in other people’s mouths. But the way he made love… That’s what it had been; making love. The careful, attentive way he had held Peter’s body as he brought him to climax was astounding. Such a violent, rude, loud mouthed man had been so careful and so vulnerable with him just a few hours ago.

It occurred to Peter when he was with Sean just how deeply in love with Wade he was. Sean was his favorite client. He was an older man with expensive tastes and he didn’t hesitate to spend money. In the few hours Peter had spent with him Sean had gotten him a few new outfits and some lingerie he couldn’t wait to show Wade. They had ordered room service after a few hours of sex and had a few glasses of champagne when it dawned on Peter that the whole night he had thought of nothing but Wade. When Sean was the one inside of him, when Sean’s mouth left dark hickeys all over his body, all he could think of was his anticipation for Wade to be there. 

Smiling, he slowly got dressed, feeling the strain in his thighs and back. When he was dressed, he decided to eat some of the hundred leftover pancakes in the fridge and went out into the living space. There he found Wade, lying on the couch asleep, his mask rolled up over his mouth but still there. Peter hated that mask with every fiber of his being. Emotional baggage was alright with him, he had a U-Haul of it himself, but that mask represented the wall Wade had put up between the two of them. He wouldn’t sleep in the same bed as Peter, he wouldn’t show Peter his face, when Peter wanted nothing more than to gaze into those eyes and run his hands through that hair, whatever color they were. In his exhaustion Wade had taken the belt of pouches off and thrown it to the side. It hung over the back of the couch, a few of the pockets open. Peter briefly considered peeking inside but decided that Wade’s work was Wade’s business—not that Wade had given him the same consideration.

Wade had kicked off his shoes as well and they sat in the middle of the room, laces undone and pooling around them. His swords were on the floor in front of the couch as if he had forgotten to take them off before lying down and flung them there in frustration. With a sigh, Peter made to clean up. He tried not to wake his sleeping guest as he did so. He grabbed the boots and tucked them under his arm and then picked up Wade’s swords. He crossed back around the sofa to get the belt. When he picked it up, a small object fell out. Peter stooped to pick it up. It was about the size of a business card, but plated with metal and gold in color. The side Peter saw was blank and he turned it over in his hand when curiosity got the best of him. When he saw what was engraved in it, he dropped the heavy combat boots to the floor and the loud THUD sound woke Wade with a start. 

“Petey Pie, that’s a great way to get accidentally murdered.” Wade said, stretching his mouth wide with a yawn. Peter’s hands shook. “Whatcha got there, Baby Boy?” He asked. 

“Wade…” Peter started. Wade’s eyes grew when he saw what Peter held in his hands. 

“Whoa, Peter, I was going to talk about this with you.” He began, climbing onto his knees to lean over the couch. Peter allowed him to snatch the card out of his hands, but he couldn’t bring himself to meet Wade’s eyes. 

“Is this a hit?” He asked. His body was numb.

“Yes, this is a name card for a hit, but, Peter, I haven’t done my research. I wasn’t planning-”

“Your research?” Peter repeated. 

“I always research my kills before I un-alive anyone!” Wade defended. Peter’s eyes shot to Wade’s face, to Wade’s mask. 

“’Un-alive?’ This is my daughter’s mother.” He said slowly. “I grew up without a mother, we have talked about this. She may be horrible to me but she is great with Lucy and Lucy deserves to have her mother-”

“I wasn’t going to do it!” Wade shouted. “I got that card last night.”

“Last night?” Peter’s volume rose with his anger. “Last night, after we made love, you left me alone to go and pick up a card so you could look into my ex-wife, the mother of my child, and see if she was deserving of these?” He threw the swords at Wade who dodged them effortlessly and returned to his position. 

“Don’t say it like that, I hate that phrase.” Wade said.

“Making love?” Peter asked, his voice nearly at a shout. “That’s what it was for me, Wade! I’m in love with you and you left me, alone, and went off to kill Gwen? You asshole!” He threw the belt at Wade and this time it caught him in the face.

“You’re what?” Wade asked.

“I was in love with you! You absolute asshole!” Peter shouted. 

“’Was’ in love?” Wade’s hopes crashed down around him and he could physically feel the disappointment that was deflating his body.

“Yes! And now I don’t think I know who you are!” Peter was storming around now, his anger at full crescendo. “We’ve lived together for how long now, and you won’t show me your goddamn face! Now I find my ex-wife’s name on a fucking calling card and you have nothing to say!”

“I told you I wasn’t going to go through with it!” Wade shouted back. 

“You don’t get to yell! I have been nothing but real with you and you have kept that fucking mask on and you expect me to be okay with it! You don’t get to be angry right now!” Peter yelled. 

“No, I do get to yell. You’re running on assumptions here, buddy.” Wade said darkly. Then to the boxes: “Shut up!”

“What am I supposed to run on, Wade? Jesus!” he went into the kitchen and braced his hands on the counter. “I have been nothing but real with you and you have given me nothing in return. You spied on me with clients, you fucked me and then left like I’m cheap, and then I find this!” 

“So, you aren’t cheap?” Wade spat. Peter looked as if Wade had slapped him. 

“Excuse me?” 

“I’m just asking because you hurt me too, Peter. You left me too. I hope you didn’t leave me to go fuck around for cheap.”

“I left for work.” Peter shot back.

“For sex.” Wade said bluntly. “You had me so worked up, I was ready to just pull the damn mask off to get you to stay. But you had to go and fuck Richard Gere and leave me with your kid all day! I guess the pay is good since you left a man you ‘don’t know’ with your child. So you’re not cheap, yeah. That’s good.”

“Holy shit, Wade.” Peter said, his volume coming back down. “I had to leave for work. This is how I pay bills.”

“This!” Wade held up the card. “Is how I pay bills.” Peter was defeated. All of the fight left him. Peter shook his head and took a deep breath.

“You don’t pay bills.” He said. “You’re too busy shacking up with a hooker.” And with that he went back into his room and slammed the door. Wade sat on the couch for a few moments, wondering how last night had led to this morning. 

When Peter came out of his room a while later, Wade was gone. He had cleaned out the study and taken all his things, but on the table in the kitchen he had left the card that read “Gwen Stacey.” Peter held the card between his fingers and cried. 

O O O O

It had been two weeks since Peter Parker had seen Wade Wilson. Both men were too proud to give in and apologize, even though Peter knew he should have heard Wade out. It was killing him not to know where Wade was or if he was safe. But he went about his days as best he could. The separation was depressing and sometimes he found that he couldn’t leave his apartment for fear that Wade would come back and they would miss each other. He met with clients and picked Lucy up for his weekend, but if he had nothing to do, he couldn’t find a way to occupy himself. 

The early days of his relationship with Gwen had never been like this. Being with her was easy. They laughed together, ate together, studied together. Then the divorce and the pregnancy came and Peter had a hard time with both. He didn’t feel prepared to be on his own. But nothing had felt like this. Even prison hadn’t felt like this. 

Pancakes made him sad. Two days after Wade left he had thrown them all out. They nearly filled the trashcan, Wade had made so many. He considered dying his hair again after remembering what Wade had said about his dark hair being attractive, but he eventually decided that he couldn’t erase memories of Wade, there were too many. The worst part was dealing with Lucy’s questions about Wade’s absence. He told her that Wade was busy, that he had found his own place to live, that he missed her too, but Lucy was skeptical. 

Wade went on hits. Tons of hits. The end results were bloody and graphic and awful. He decided he was more himself when he was soaked in blood. He asked fewer questions about whether or not his target was deserving, and he enjoyed the kills way more than ever before. And yet when he dragged what was left of his body home at night, the images of Peter were too much. He was renting a small apartment above a Chinese restaurant. The whole place reeked of grease and the only furniture was a TV sitting on a box and a mattress laying on the floor in the corner. He hadn’t bothered to put sheets on it. 

He pictured Peter when they first met, blond and cynical. Then looser as he got to know him. He couldn’t pinpoint the moment he was past the point of no return, but it had happened. He imagined the way Peter had moved that night, taking him into himself and holding onto him as he came. The open-mouthed expression with eyes trained on Wade’s face as if he were the only thing holding the universe together… And then his expression of disgust and anger when Peter had found that card. That was about the time Wade would put a bullet in his own head just to get some sleep. 

The gore helped. The money helped. But nothing could make this right. He stayed away from Peter because he was ashamed of what he had said, but also because he was afraid of what Peter had said. “I’m in love with you and you left me.” It rang in his head like a gunshot. Wade couldn’t imagine ever hearing from Peter again. He couldn’t imagine finding anyone like that again…

So imagine his surprise while he was knee-deep in the guts of his target when his phone rang and he checked the screen. 

“Peter?” He asked, picking up on the first ring and cutting off “Dancing Queen” by ABBA. This was it, his chance to apologize, to reconnect. 

“Wade!” Peter sounded distressed, frantic, and even hysterical. 

“What? What is it?!” He asked, plugging the other ear. 

“It’s Lucy! Something happened, Wade. Gwen is in the hospital and she’s saying that Lucy is gone.”

“What?!” He pulled the blade out of his target’s chest and stepped away from his latest massacre. 

“Gwen went to get Lucy from school. She pulled some kind of prank on another kid and the principal sent her home. On the way home a car hit them and Gwen was trapped in the car and she said a few men came and they took Lucy!” Peter was crying. He could hardly speak. “She described them to me at the hospital, I think they're the same men that chased us out of Sister Margret’s. Wade, they have my daughter.” 

“Do you know where?” Wade asked. His heart was beating too hard for him to focus. He replaced his swords and went out of the building into the busy streets. 

“They gave an address. I-I’m on my way there now. They told Gwen to send me; they said if I call the police they’ll kill her! They know my name, Wade, they have Lucy.” He broke down sobbing into the phone and Wade replaced his panic with anger. 

“Peter, don’t go. Send me the address and go back to the hospital. Get a cop to stand outside of Gwen’s room and stay with her.”

“I’m her father, Wade.” Peter said. “I have to go.”

“Peter, give me an hour and if Lucy isn’t back with you, go nuts. But for now, please trust me. Please?”

“Okay… Okay, you’re right. I’m sending it now.” Peter said. “P-please, please get her back to me.”

“I will, Petey, I promise.” Wade told him. “I’ll deliver her personally. Go to the hospital.” 

“Wade I’m so sorry about everything.” Peter sounded so lost and afraid. “About how we left things. When Gwen told me, all I could think of was to call you. You really are a good man, Wade.” 

“It’s okay, Baby Boy.” Wade said. “Just get to that hospital and keep yourself safe. Call me if anything happens.”

“I will.” Peter agreed. “And Wade? Be careful… I love you.” Wade’s breath caught in his throat. 

‘One thing at a time.’ White said. 

“I’ll be careful.” Wade said, and he hung up. He went to the parking lot and found a small motorcycle, the kind that forces the driver to lean over the gas tank. He made short work of hotwiring it and took off, breaking every traffic law known to man. He had swiped the helmet too, knowing he couldn’t die but that a head injury could kill him and put him out of commission for a while. It would take him about five minutes to get there, but he felt like time was slipping away at the speed of light. Sweet little Lucy… Peter’s baby. She was so precious and small. Wade’s boxes were overlapping now, each one blaming him for the current situation. Telling him that he was the reason things had gone to shit.

‘That’s all we do.’ Yellow screamed. 

‘There’s no telling what will happen to that kid.’ White agreed. 

‘You should have learned the first time around, you’re no good for anyone.’

‘This is your fucking fault!’

‘EVERYTHING YOU TOUCH TURNS TO SHIT!’

“Enough!” Wade screamed over the sound of the motor. “I don’t give a flying fuck whose fault it is, I just have to fix it. So, kindly cram a dick in it and get out of my fucking head!” His wrist twisted back harder and he sped through traffic, weaving this way and that. A few close calls had his heart racing. He couldn’t go in there road rashed to hell, and he didn’t have time to waste healing. 

Eventually traffic thinned out and he was able to really lay on the gas. When he pulled up to the building he slowed down enough to dismount and let the bike keep going. The sound alerted a few guard type thugs and he disposed of them quickly with a headshot between the eyes for each. Holstering his weapon he approached the main entrance of what appeared to be an abandoned factory and threw open the enormous industrial doors. 

“Alright!” He bellowed into the high ceilings. “Ladies, Gentlemen, and Others, it’s time for the show to begin!” Instantly there were fifteen guns trained on him. 

“You’re not who we’re after, kid.” A man said, stepping forward. Wade took in the scene. The floor he was currently on had several large machines closer to the walls that had been covered by tarps years ago and were now coated in dust. There were ten men on this floor, all with weapons trained on him and above them on a metal catwalk there were five more. Everything was concrete and dark metal. A few busted windows let light spill in and cast grid patterns across the floor. Some machinery hung from the ceiling as well, some of it falling apart and Wade briefly wondered what was made here.

“Way!” 

Wade’s head snapped to the source of the sound. Lucy was sitting on a wooden box off to one side of the catwalk. She looked terrified and she had obviously been crying. Wade’s heart clenched painfully in his chest at the thought of what was at stake. One of her small feet was tied around the ankle and the other end of the rope was secured to the thick metal railing. She was missing a shoe and Wade felt a surge of pride that she had fought back. Still, she looked like a tiny porcelain doll sitting on a shelf; so small and fragile. 

The ladder that led to the catwalk was covered by a few of the men on the ground and Wade briefly considered storming them, kamikaze style. He knew, however, that Lucy would pay if he did. 

“You guys sure know how to pick a location!” He commented. “We’ve got some scenery, a splash of color or two, and the levels are very varied. Haha! Very varied. Did one of you go to art school, or does the writer just not understand how mundane an abandoned building would really be?”

“We want the little bitch that disrespected our boss.” One of the men on the ground said. 

“Please, watch your language in front of the little nugget up there.” Wade said with the tone of a chiding mother.

“Oh!” He held a hand up. “Back to my wrestling thing. Ahem… In this corner, standing at six foot two and weighing in at 210 pounds, we have Deadpool!” He cheered for himself, clutching his hands up over his head in an act of showmanship. 

“Look at this loon.” One man commented. Another one shrugged. 

“He’s batshit, that’s for fucking sure.”

“And in all the other corners, standing about as tall as tiny toy soldiers and about to be weighed on the autopsy table, we have you guys!” He booed this time, hissing and giving an exaggerated thumbs down. 

“Deadpool.” The man nearest to Lucy spoke. “You know how it is. If some little fucker came onto your terf and gave you a right hook, you’d be pissed as well. Now I know you’ve been fucking this lil’ twink, but business is business and boss wants him dead. 

“They mean Daddy!” Lucy shouted, her brown eyes red and wide and desperate. Without warning the man plopped his hand down on top of her head. The gesture was almost affectionate. She made a strangled squeaking noise and began to cry. 

“This is one spirited little miss.” He said. Deadpool was seeing red. That man was touching Lucy. Lucy was crying and this man had the audacity to put his hands on Lucy Stacey-Parker as if she were his own child. “Hush now.” He added toward Lucy in a stern tone. 

“Lucy, it’s all okay. You’re going to be fine.” Wade assured her and then turned his attention to the man. “Who are you?” Wade asked. 

“Who am I? Who the fuck am I?” He laughed. “I’m employed by a very powerful man that your little hooker pissed off. You were there, I believe? He made a business proposal and your good pal Peter didn’t appreciate it, so he stabbed our boss. Then my employer had to meet up with potential clients who asked too many questions about how a man of his distinguished talents could have been injured.” 

“This monologue is very boring, and very vague. Get to the gory shit.” Wade said to himself. 

“My employer goes by the name of Beetle.” The man said. 

“And is that supposed to make me shake in my leather?” Wade asked. “Look man, I don’t care if your employer is the Queen of England, you’ve got a little kid up there and I sincerely hope she is not injured in any way, for your sake.” 

“I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, but you’re certainly not the one in power here.” The man said. Wade decided to call him Douche Master because this man was refusing to answer his question. The others he numbered one through fifteen, starting on the ground. 

“Now,” DM began. “It’s in your best interest to go and get me Peter Parker in exchange for his little princess here, or I’ll kill her in front of you.” This elicited a wail from Lucy.

“Way!” She cried. 

“Is that you?” DM asked. “Are you ‘Way?’”

“I’m a man of many names.” Wade said quietly. 

“Okay then. Whatever your name is, it’s time for you to run along and grab us the little slut-for-pay.” DM told him. “Unless you want to watch her die before dying yourself.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it, and that you don't hate me for the cliffhanger!  
> All of your comments are very much appreciated. I try to respond to them all, and they're honestly what keeps me going. I'm doing my best to finish this for you all and the comments are very encouraging!


	10. Violence and Vendettas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wade has to save Lucy and get her back to Peter. There's only a few men with guns in his way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, guys... Here it is. This is the next to last chapter. There's one more after that and then maaaaaybe an epilogue. No promises.

“You won’t kill her over me.” Wade said with confidence he was fighting to feel. “Without her, you can’t draw Peter out. You’ll have to wade through a hospital full of cops to get to him. Plus you gave him this address. It won’t be hard to find fingerprints, and something tells me you’re all in the system.” DM didn’t break eye contact but he didn’t speak either, telling Wade he was right. 

“Lucy, princess… This is all going to be over in just a few minutes. I need you to trust me, okay?” he said. Lucy nodded. DM put his hands on the railing. 

“I say when it’s over!” He shouted. 

“Lucy, I need you to cover your eyes. Can you do that? Just cover your eyes and sing a song. It’s going to be loud in here.” Wade prompted. His voice was soft and gentle, but the nerves that had knotted up inside of him were not going away. Lucy obediently squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears. 

“Sing, Lucy!” Wade shouted. Lucy obeyed, singing something from one the movies she watched over and over. “Louder!” He said and her volume rose a bit louder. She was so scared that her voice was shaking. 

“Shut that bitch up, Boss!” One of the guards on the ground shouted. Wade snatched a handgun from its holster and blew a hole in the man’s head without looking. 

“I said, watch your fucking mouths.” He growled. The remaining men fired and Lucy screamed. Wade took the oncoming fire to the chest without giving ground. 

“Keep singing, Princess!” Wade shouted. She returned to her song but it was garbled from her sobbing. Wade decided he was going to make bacon out of these fuckers and fry them to a crisp. When the shower of bullets stopped, a few of the men stepped back. Wade counted thirty rounds. Twenty through-and-through, five missed, three grazed, and two still inside. One had lodged into his collar bone and broken it. He reached into his boot with his good hand found a large hunting knife to pry the bullet out. Once it was out he gave a violent tug on his shoulder and snapped the bone back into place with an audible ‘Pop!’ 

“It sure hurts, but I’m no worse for wear.” He commented to the bewildered expressions.

“I didn’t sign up for this shit.” One man said, trying to back toward an exit. 

“Me neither.” Wade told him with an exaggerated sigh. “Sometimes the world just fucks you up the ass.” He considered taking all of them out with his guns, but not only did that not sound like a good time, he was worried about Lucy catching a stray. “Okay, so I have twelve bullets in this gun,” He patted his hip. “And eight in this one.” He indicated the one in his hand. 

“Now, in a perfect world, I wouldn’t miss and I could kill you all and have some ammo to spare. But this world isn’t a perfect one and I’ll bet some of you will shit your pants and run, creating moving targets. I’m pretty good with a gun, if I do say so myself, but one of you broke my collarbone and that’s going to take at least a half hour to heal, so I’m not exactly at my best. So, here’s the deal. You give me that little angel, or I will find creative ways to kill each of you individually and as painfully as possible.” 

“Not a chance.” DM said. 

“Suit yourself.” Wade said, holstering his weapon before unsheathing his pride and joy from his back. 

“Hey! I could name you guys that. Pride and Joy!” He exclaimed. Then he began to twirl them in a display of his power. His shoulder screamed out in pain, but he could work with it. 

“Kill this asshole.” DM commanded. Three men surged forward, guns blazing and Wade pulled some acrobatics to get out of the way. Once they were in range, he rushed at them, swinging down hard like an executioner. He got two out of three directly in the throats on the first swing, and used his forward momentum to swing around and plant his boot in the third ones face. He took him to the ground and smashed his skull, watching brain matter seep out onto the floor. He took a moment to grind his foot into the mess, squishing it like a grape under his boot and earned a few bullets to the abdomen for his preoccupancy. The pain was intense every time Wade got hit, but the dull throb of his many cancer-infected organs put it in perspective. He lived his life at a three on the pain scale, so how much worse could a ten be? He rushed another of the few who had come forward and rammed through him with both swords to the hilt. He then used his dying body as a battering ram to knock down four of the others. He withdrew his swords and opened the man’s ribcage like an orange peel. 

“Five down, ten to go.” He said, checking to make sure Lucy’s eyes were still covered. DM had an intense look of fear riddled with surprise on his face and Wade groaned.   
“That’s going to get me hard.” He said, cupping himself. Lucy continued to sing between her sobbing breaths and Wade felt a spike of energy. 

Only five remained on the floor. Five more were on the catwalk in the process of climbing down. Two of them came at him and he used the ends of his swords to drag a white tarp off of the nearest machine and throw it over the men. They collided with one another, bullets piercing the tarp and eventually each other in their struggle to get out. 

“Eight.” Wade said with a grin. Three moved this time and Wade Shish Kebabbed two of them with one sword, letting go of the handle to let them stumble around like a human centipede. Then he pulled a gun from its holster with his free hand. Curiosity was building about a large red button hanging off of the machine fixed to the ceiling. Wade pulled the trigger and hit his target which, to his delight and surprise, brought the machine to life.

“What are the odds?!” Wade said, shoving his gun back in the holster and retrieving his sword from the two men. The first one dropped but the second one attempted to raise his weapon. Wade slashed at the hands of the third man (“You’ll get yours too, don’t worry!”) causing him to drop his weapons in agony, and then he turned his attention back to his survivor to dodge the fire. When he righted himself he was behind his assailant who was hunched at the shoulders and soaked in blood from the chest wound. Wade could have let him bleed out but instead he planted his foot in the center of his back and threw him forward and into the giant machine rig. As he had hoped, the machine brought down a part of itself and crushed the man instantly. 

“Is this a printing press? Is that still a thing?” Wade asked. “Anyway: seven.” He returned to the man who now had bloody hands and was missing a few fingers and gave him a quick whack under the chin. “Six!” Blood spurted out in a perfectly straight line and the man dropped just in time for wade to prepare for the next group. 

“Why do you attack in waves, I’ve just got way too much time to prep!” he said, laughing. “Keep ‘em coming, I could do this all day!” And they obeyed. This time he was circled by the six who remained. A quick glance at the catwalk revealed a very cooperative Lucy who was singing with covered ears and closed eyes and Douche Master, who was beginning to sweat. 

“Watch this.” Wade said to him. In one swift motion he took of the three men who were facing the catwalk with a sword to the throat. They crumpled in a bloody mass and Wade took fire to his back from the remaining three. Priority number one was to keep the fire away from Lucy even if it meant taking it himself. She was irreplaceable. He was… Wade Wilson.

He turned on a dime, spinning dramatically and clutching at his back and dropping his swords. He moaned as one would in death and spasmed a bit before falling to the ground at the feet of them all. He coughed up blood from the bullets that were still swimming in his gut and the blood bubbled through the mask, then he lolled his head to the side and lay still. Sure enough, as planned, all three leaned in to see if he was dead and Wade was able to swipe his gun from his holster and fire one shot through each of their chins. They collapsed on him and he rolled the bodies off, spitting blood that had seeped into his mouth. 

“Well, Douche Master Flash. Looks like you owe me a four year old.” He said, climbing to his feet and sheathing his dropped katanas. DM’s eyes wheeled around in his head looking for an exit. Wade approached the ladder and put a bullet in DM’s shoulder to assure he would stay there. Then he holstered his weapons again and climbed quickly up the ladder. When he reached the top DM was lying on his back, inching away from Wade with his good arm. 

“You know,” Wade began. “I fully expected to come up here and find you with a knife to her throat or a gun to her head, but it seems you’re a bit smarter than that. You would rather die quickly and painlessly than to have to face my wrath, very smart man. Now, why don’t you step on over there and let me cut this little lemon zest free, okay?” The man climbed to his feet with a grunt and Wade went to Lucy. He placed his hands over hears and she screamed at the sudden contact.

“Shh. Lucy, it’s me. Don’t open your eyes yet, honey, okay?” he said in what he hoped was a comforting tone. “I’m going to untie you but I need to you be real still because we’re up high and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Are you going to let me go?” The man asked. 

“I told you.” Wade responded. “All I wanted was the kid. Now, one through fifteen had to suffer because of your poor listening skills, but if you just shut up you might not have to.” His fingers managed to loosen the knot enough to slip Lucy’s little foot out and he tossed the rope aside. 

“Thank you.” The man said. “Thank you, thank you so much.” 

“Okay, Lucy. Keep those peepers shut, it’s time to go.” He reached up to her face to wipe away some of her tears and noticed a faint blue mark surrounded by red. He paused. He processed… Then he stood up. 

“Is that a bruise on her face?” Wade asked. The man’s mouth opened and shut again. He had a hand placed over his wound. “Is. That. A bruise?” Wade asked again. 

“It must have happened during transport!” The man tried to defend himself. “I wasn’t even there, they just brought her to me!”

“There’s a bruise on my favorite preschooler and your excuse is ‘it wasn’t me?’ Jesus, man.” He stood back to his full height and clapped a hand on the man’s injured shoulder. 

“I’m sorry!” He shouted, knees bending in pain. “Look, I’m just following orders! Beetle sent us to get Peter, we were never going to kill the kid!” Wade shoved his thumb into the bullet hole, feeling the give of the soft tissue and muscle inside. Once his finger was buried up to the knuckle he manipulated the man back and against a wall. The man wailed in pain.

“I should pin you here with my swords.” He said. “I should hang you on this wall like some goddamn ugly Christmas decoration and leave you there to slide down that blade over the next hour or so.” Police sirens started up in the distance, coming up fast. 

“Instead,” He continued. “I’m going to leave you here. With a bullet in each knee, so that when the police arrest you, this little sugar plum’s mother can sic her legal hell hounds on you and get you put into a deep hole in the ground. Then, in a few years when you’re paroled or released, I’m going to find you and I’m going to slice you up into sheets of paper and write the fucking story on you of how I killed everyone in here. How does that sound?” he asked. “Sounds like a plan to me.” 

Wade returned to Lucy. 

“Okay, kid. It’s Way. I’m going to pick you up, are you hurt anywhere?” He asked. 

“I’m scared, Way.” She said in a very small voice. Her eyes were still squeezed shut and her little body was still shaking.

“I know, baby. But I’m taking you back to your dad, okay?”

“Okay.” He knelt down and picked her up, holding her against his chest like you would a newborn. She wrapped her legs around him to hold on and he realized she had wet herself. Anger spiked in him anew and he said, “Cover your ears just for a second, sweet pea.” Then took his weapon and fired two shots into the man’s knees as promised. 

“Enjoy jail while you can.” He said, moving to the ladder. He coaxed Lucy to hold on to his neck and he climbed down with her clinging to his torso. When they reached the bottom, he supported her so that she could relax a bit and they made their way to the doors. 

When they stepped outside into the fading sunlight they were surrounded by police. 

“Put down the child!” Came a shout through a megaphone. Light swirled around the barren lot, and sirens still wailed in the background. Wade weighed his options. 

“We don’t want to harm her. Put her down and step away so that she can come to us and out of danger.”

“I promised I would deliver her personally!” Wade shouted back. “To her dad!”

“We can do that.” The officer responded. “But right now, you are a suspect who is very heavily armed and we need to clear you.” Wade sighed. He knelt down, placing Lucy’s feet gingerly to the ground and putting his hands on her shoulders. 

“Lucy, open your eyes.” He said. She did so very hesitantly, but seeing Wade’s mask she shut them again. 

“I want Way.” She said. 

“I am Way.” He assured her. She shook her head hard.

“I want Way! I’m confused. I can’t see you and I don’t know!” She wailed. “I want Way!” Wade cleared his throat and looked away for a moment. 

“Okay, okay.” He said. Then he turned to the officer. “I’m just taking off the mask! She’s scared, she wants to see me, okay?” he shouted. 

“No sudden movements, man.” The officer replied. “I’m doing my best here, but you need to hand us the girl.” 

“Okay, Lucy. Open those pretty little eyes.” He said, slowly raising his hands behind his head to find the elastic band and pull the mask up over his head. He heard a few gasps and murmurs from the crowd of police that had now gathered, training weapons on him. He steeled himself despite the fact that he was almost certain an officer gagged.

“Lucy, Please, it’s me.” He said gently. She slowly opened one eye and then the other and then her tiny body relaxed with relief. 

“Way.” She said. “… I’m still scared.”

“I know it, Princess.” He assured her. “But listen to me, okay? Listen to Way. I need you to walk over to those police officers, okay? They’re the good guys. They’re going to take you to see your mom and dad.”

“Okay.” She said, more tears welling up. “Are you gonna come too?” she asked. 

“I can’t, kid.” He said. “They think I’m a bad guy. They have me confused.”

‘No they don’t.’ said yellow.

‘You’re a terrible guy.’ White agreed. 

“I have to go with them and tell them that they’re wrong, but you’re going to go see your mom and dad so they know you’re okay.” He told her. 

“Okay.” She said, shoulders sagging. 

“Okay. You’re being very brave right now, Lucy. You’ve been brave all day.” He said, earning a tiny grin. “Also, don’t answer any questions about what happened. You can tell them if your head hurts or if your tummy hurts, but tell them to wait for your mommy to be with you to ask questions, okay?” She nodded her little head. 

“Time to go.” The officer said. Wade got back to his feet and raised his hands over his head. 

“Go on, Lucy. It’s okay.” With one last look back at Wade, Lucy walked little by little over to the cop car. Another officer picked her up and carried her over to an ambulance at the edge of the scene. Within seconds they descended on Wade, forcing him to the ground and stripping him off all of his weapons. A female officer flipped him over, checking the blood and bullet holes. 

“He’s been shot.” An officer said into the radio on her shoulder. “We need another medic over here.” They cuffed him roughly and kept a knee on his stomach until the paramedics arrived. Wade allowed them to load him up onto a gurney and strap him down. It took three paramedics to lift him and carry him to a separate ambulance from Lucy. He craned his neck to see her, but she had already disappeared. 

“Is she okay?” He asked. “She had a bruise on her face and I don’t know what else they did to her.” The woman climbed into the back of the ambulance with him and the other two shut the door. 

“She’s in good hands, sir.” The woman replied in a stoic tone. He waited until they had started to move before he bothered forming an escape plan. The police would take Lucy back to Gwen and Peter, and S.H.I.E.L.D would more than likely be called in to deal with Deadpool. Considering his last few interactions with them, Wade would like to keep that last bit from happening. He heaved himself up into a sitting positions, hearing the small metallic *tink!* of bullets leaving his body and clattering to the floor. The paramedic put her hand on his chest and tried to get him to sit down, but Wade wasn’t having it. Didn’t she realize he had just snapped the nylon restraint with only his sheer bulk? 

“Sir!” She said with authority. “You are very injured, please lie back.” Wade did not comply. Instead he started to bang his left hand against the side of the stretcher. He pulled his massive thighs apart and that strap broke as well. He had to give this woman kudos, she hardly flinched. 

“Sir!” The woman repeated, this time with a little bit of panic in her voice. Wade ignored her and continued to bash the base of his hand against the stretcher until the bone gave in and he was able to slide his hand out of the cuffs. 

“I would love to stick around and see how much morphine I can trick the nurses into giving me, but I have some work to do. Revenge to seek. A vendetta to vendet. So, if you promise not to scream and alert the driver, I promise to sneak out of here quietly and not use your body as a surf board on cement since we are going at least fifty miles an hour.” He massaged the broken hand with his good one, listening to bones shift and grind against one another. The woman opened her mouth and then looked Wade up and down before shutting it with a snap. She gave a short nod and Wade reached for the handle. 

“Sir?” She said. “Can I ask you something?” He turned back to her. She was rather pretty when he considered her. An old school butch woman with short hair and a deep tan. 

“Sure thing, lady.” He agreed, hand still on the doorknob. 

“You saved that kid, didn’t you? From all those men?” 

“Yeah. I won’t pretend it wasn’t fun to watch their guts fly like streamers, but that kid is a very important human bean. I wasted them all to get her safe.” He told her. She nodded slowly. 

“One more thing.” She said with a deep breath. “You’re going to get the rest, aren’t you? That’s why you want out so badly?” 

“I have a few more things on my grocery list, yeah.” 

“Okay.” She suddenly stood as well as she could in the rig and leaned over him. 

“You’re trying to stop me?” He asked incredulously. 

“No.” She said, a sudden intensity to her voice. “If you jump out, there’s no reason I shouldn’t inform the driver and call the cops. But you need to get these bastards. I have a kid of my own, about that girl’s age. If someone took her from me, I would want them dead. So, I need you to knock me out. It will give you time to get far away before I call it in.” She gestured to the back of her skull and closed her eyes.

“You’re kidding…” Wade said. He was trying not to laugh. It wasn’t often someone was on his side. “You know I could split that melon with one hit, right?”

“I trust you not to.” She said, eyes still squeezed shut. Wade shrugged. 

“Alright, lady.” He drew back an arm and aimed, feeling the burn of the tensed muscle. “Whatever you say.” 

“Just kill those motherfuckers.” She said just before impact. Wade knocked her out cold in one hit. Before he jumped out he lifted her up onto the stretcher and tried to make her comfortable. He hoped he hadn’t given her a concussion. 

Back in action he swung open the doors to the back of the rig and waited for the vehicle to decelerate a bit. When it did, he jumped out and rolled. He managed not to break anything important, just a few toes and a fractured elbow. Once back on the sidewalk, he assessed his gear. They had taken his swords and both side arms from his hip holsters. But they hadn’t checked his boots. In his left boot was a bowie knife and in his right was a deconstructed H&K. He quickly assembled the gun and fit it into a hip holster. Then he was on the move. 

O O O O

Peter refused to release his daughter for days. He slept in the hospital on a cot they had pulled in for him, living on cafeteria meatloaf and coffee. Gwen did the same, leaving as infrequently as possible for work. Lucy was kept there for observation for a week. She had scans and X-rays done to check for anything internal. Then she had a few sessions with the hospital therapist before she was finally cleared. The three of them went back to Gwen’s late the eighth night and Peter put Lucy to bed. When he returned to the living room Gwen was waiting, holding out a glass of wine almost as a peace offering. Peter accepted it and they clinked glasses. 

“Lucy told me what happened when you were getting us lunch.” Gwen said. Her throat was raw. She still had a bandage over one eye from the car accident, but it was superficial. Peter tensed. He hadn’t heard the story yet, but he could imagine it wasn’t pretty. 

“Wade… That’s the man who was looking after her the other day, isn’t it?” She asked. Peter gave a short nod. Gwen sighed, moving to the couch to relax into the cushions. Peter followed her, sitting on the coffee table across from her. 

“I looked into him.” She admitted. “I searched through the database but nothing came up. I imagine that’s not because his hands are clean?”

“No.” Peter nearly whispered. 

“I assumed as much…” She placed her hand over one of Peter’s. 

“Gwen, it’s honestly best if you don’t know everything.” He suggested. To his surprise, Gwen smiled. 

“Thank you.” She said. Peter raised an eyebrow. 

“Did you start on this bottle already?” He asked. She shook her head. 

“I know who Wade is. It took a hell of a lot of research and favors called in, but I know what he does for a living.” 

“And you’re thanking me?” 

“The man who raped you went missing a while ago.” She said, looking into his eyes. “Can I assume that’s how you met Wade?” Peter took a long, ragged breath before nodding slowly. Gwen nodded back. 

“I was so angry at you then, I didn’t believe what you were saying. I got the chance to go against you in court and take my daughter and I took it. I realize now how wrong that was of me.” She lowered her eyes in shame and Peter was astonished. 

“I shouldn’t have done that to you, Peter.” She admitted. “It was wrong. When Lucy went missing, you got her back. I was lying in a hospital bed trying to figure out who to hire to prosecute the men who were going to kill my daughter, but you got her back, and I am eternally grateful for that.”

“It was no problem, Gwen.” He said, squeezing her hand. “I knew Wade could help, so I called him.” 

“I’ll stop with the photos…” She said quietly. “I’ll call off the PI, and I’ll let you make money however you want to. Just keep it away from Lucy.”

“Of course!” Peter said. This was so unlike them, having a civilized conversation about their daughter with no yelling or blaming. 

“Well, as long as you keep this all from Lucy, I’m willing to talk custody.” Gwen offered. 

“Of course, yes!” Peter exclaimed. “We can do it here or in a legal setting, I don’t care.”

“I think trading off two weeks is good.” Gwen said. “And we could alternate holidays, or… We could do them together?” 

“Perfect.” He said. “Your house this year or mine?” Gwen laughed, a sound Peter hadn’t heard in a while. 

“Mine. Yours for Thanksgiving?” 

“Deal.” 

“If you don’t mind, could I have her tonight? I know we both went through a trauma, but I can’t let her out of my sight.” Gwen inquired. “You could stay the night here too, if you want.” Peter smiled. 

“I should get home and get changed.” He said. “I’ll come back over tomorrow and bring lunch, how does that sound? I remember your love for chicken pot pie.” Gwen laughed again and nodded. 

“See you then.”

“See you then.” Peter downed his wine and stood up, letting himself out of Gwen’s luxury apartment and making his way through town to his own home. 

When he got home he ran a bath, sinking down into the water as best he could in the small tub. The stress and anxiety of the past few days was seeping out with the heat. His daughter was home. She was home and safe and the doctors determined that she had no lasting damage. He hadn’t heard the story of how Wade got her out yet, but he hoped Lucy wouldn’t grow up traumatized. She was young enough that she may be able to forget all about it… Right? Tension found its way back into Peter’s body as he started to consider what Wade had done in front of his four year old child. She would recover, right?

He tried to shake the thoughts free, but they held on. He reached out of the bath, using a towel to dry the water and bubbles off of that arm, and grabbed his phone. He went to Wade’s contact and hesitated. It had been eight days since he had called Wade, bawling. Shouldn’t the mercenary have called him by now? Checked up? 

Peter had seen the news that announced the escape of a ‘Suspicious Person’ from the scene of the crime. He knew Wade wasn’t behind bars somewhere. Gwen was currently working to free Wade of suspicion, but that was hard to do considering the entire event was motivated by Peter’s refusal to service this ‘Beetle’ person, and Wade had escaped police custody. Still, Wade should have checked up on Lucy at the very least? The footage of Wade setting Lucy down outside of the building had brought Peter to tears. The gentle, careful way he speaks to her that was caught in the dash cam of a squad car. When the onscreen Wade went to lift his mask, Peter had turned away. He felt as if it weren’t his to see. Not like that anyway. 

Overcome with worry, Peter pressed the screen and called Wade. Shortly after doing so he heard music from his living room, a speaker blasting “Let’s Give ‘em Something to Talk About.” Peter sat up so quickly his movement splashed water over the edges of the tub and onto the floor. He left his phone on the floor, forgotten, and snatched his towel off the rack, wrapping himself up and sprinting out of the tiny bathroom. Sure enough, Wade stood in the kitchen, dropping his bag on the table and trekking casually over to the couch as if the past few weeks had never happened. 

“Wade!” Peter called out, feet pooling in the water that ran down his body and onto the floor. He was frozen there, like a victim of Medusa. Wade was favoring one leg and Peter realized the limb was exposed, his suit cut away. It was thin and too short, like a child’s leg had been stitched on in the place of Wade’s bulk and muscle. A sling made from a grocery bag held Wade’s left arm against his body. Peter’s brown eyes went to the gap between his collarbone and shoulder and his stomach turned. It was as if a giant ice cream scooper had taken out the muscle and bone there. The rest of his body seemed to be intact, but his suit was torn and burned in a few places. His mask… Peter noticed. The backside of it was torn and there was a bullet hole through the jaw. 

“Wade, are you okay?” He asked in a hushed voice. The man looked like ground beef. Wade grinned behind the mask. 

“Just fine, Petey-Pie!” His speech was a little slurred and Peter realized his jaw was detached on one side. 

“Sit down.” Peter instructed. Wade shook his head. 

“Don’t wanna get gore on the couch.” He said. Peter grabbed a blanket and threw it over the couch. Wade sat down heavily, his bad leg propped on the coffee table where Peter could watch the muscles undulate and grow. It was off-putting, but interesting in the weirdest way. Peter sat down beside Wade. 

“What can I do?” He asked. Wade shrugged, picking up the remote control and turning on the TV. Peter stared at him incredulously.

“A beer?” Wade asked. Peter nodded and jumped up to grab a beer. He was so in over his head here. He brought the bottle back to Wade, who twisted off the top and sat it carefully on the cap of his good knee, balancing it there. Peter watched his movements carefully, not sure how to interact with the man anymore. Then, Wade reached up and grabbed his jaw in his good hand as if pensive before giving a sharp pull and a grunt followed by a low groan of pain. Peter heard the bones go back into place and he tasted bile.

Before he could open his mouth however, Wade reached up to gather the bottom of his mask in hand and pulled the whole thing up, over his mouth and the off completely. Peter was speechless. He was seeing Wade’s face for the first time! This wonderful, kind, extraordinary man had finally trusted Peter enough to show him something he was cripplingly insecure about… and Wade sat on the couch, drinking a beer as if nothing was happening. Peter took a moment to memorize him. The strong jawline he had seen before, as well as the thin lips. But he was seeing the strong, Roman nose for the first time. The dark brown eyes and heavy brow. He was beautiful, in theory. His features lined up together to create a real model of a man. Each of the details was strong and defined, even his eyes were full of intensity and power. That thick neck that lead to those broad shoulders… it was as if Peter was meeting him for the first time. 

“Wade-” He began, but Wade cut him off.

“I took off the goddamn mask, do we have to fucking talk about it?” He growled, turning the beer up once more. He skin really was disturbing. He looked like the victim of a house fire or acid burns. The pockmarks reminded Peter of his blistered feet during college. He would peel and cut away the skin leaving deep craters of hot pink surrounded by his usual pale peach skin. He was dying to know the texture of his face. Was it the same as the texture of his sex? Peter hoped so. The scarred ridges and valleys traveled all over Wade’s body, across his bald head and over his hairless eyebrows, down his face and jaw and into the neck of the suit. 

“Spit it out, kid.” Wade said. “Do you want me or not?” The bullet hole in his jaw had mainly healed now, the tip of the bullet poked out just a bit. Wade reached up and carelessly pulled it out along with some bone matter and general gore. He flexed his jaw again and Peter watched the hole close up as Wade took another drink. His good knee was bouncing, Peter saw. He was nervous. 

Peter carefully laid his hand on Wade’s leg, stopping its motion. He looked at Wade and waited, watching the larger man fidget. The bad leg continued to grow, gaining speed as it gained shape. The hole in his collar bone was moving a bit slower, bone branching out like a scaffolding for the rest of the wound to build on. After several tense seconds Wade reluctantly turned to Peter and met his eyes. 

“Boo.” Peter said. 

“That’s my line.” Wade mumbled. He looked away again and Peter gently guided his jaw back to him and leaned in to kiss him tenderly. He stroked Wade’s jaw absently with his thumb, thanking the powers that be for bringing him back his hot mess of a lover. 

“I’m sorry about our fight.” He said. “I should have listened to you. I should have known you wouldn’t have gone through with it at least before telling me. I’m sorry I doubted you, Wade.” Wade’s eyes widened. 

“What?” He asked, surprised. “That’s what you want to discuss? Not the fact that The Thing had sex with an actual meatloaf and I was their baby? Peter, you don’t have to pretend this isn’t a deal breaker. You’re a vision, Baby Boy. Don’t waste your time with Freddy Kruger’s fucking nightmare here.” Peter chuckled and shook his head. 

“I like the meatloaf one better. I imagine you as a baby, but lying in a pan.” He joked. Wade laughed too, despite himself. 

“Seriously, kid.” Wade said in a sober tone. “Don’t stick around because you feel guilty. I can get gone. I’m good at that.” 

“I want you here.” Peter grabbed a handful of Wade’s suit and looked up at him with those honey brown eyes and Wade’s heart jumped in his chest. 

“Okay.” He agreed, transfixed. Even if leaving was what he believed was best for Peter, Wade couldn’t do it when Peter looked at him like that. They sat and watched TV together for a few minutes before Peter sat up and went to grab two more beers. With a huff he sat back down and leaned against Wade’s good shoulder. 

“What do you say, when you’re healed, we take it back to my bedroom and I say thank you for everything you’ve done?” Peter suggested. Wade’s abdominal muscles tightened. 

“Sure thing, Baby Boy. Just keep your airplane sickness bag at the ready. This body is known to make food reappear.” 

Peter gave Wade a play slap and leaned back against him to watch his leg form back into the thick bands of strength and muscle they were before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be mainly smut. Lol. I've been building up to it and it's time to deliver. Keep commenting, guys. That's what keeps me going.


	11. Removing Masks and Making Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter you have all been waiting for!! Wade's mask is off, now what?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would apologize for this being so late, but we all knew it would be. I hope you all enjoy!

Seeing Wade’s expressions was surreal for Peter. Since they had met, Wade had communicated through the mask. Peter had assumed the shift of the fabric was a smirk or a quirked eyebrow all this time and now he got to see the real thing… Which is why he was so disappointed at Wade’s stoicism. The man watched TV the way he would watch paint dry. He was silent and Peter wondered if the motor-mouth quirk was held at bay by Wade’s sudden insecurity. He couldn’t help himself, hand wandering up to the back of Wade’s skull, caressing the gnarled skin in a loving way. Wade shuddered, feeling a tremor run down his spine. It felt so good to be touched that way. It had been too long. 

“Peter?” He whispered. Peter hummed in response. “Could you help me out of the suit? Sometimes the fabric gets in the way and makes the healing take longer.”

“You don’t need an excuse for me to undress you, Wade.” Peter joked lamely, earning a half-grin. His leg was mainly healed by now and the bones had reformed in his shoulder. Peter stood up and helped Wade to his feet, leading him by the hand back to the bedroom. Wade seemed hesitant to go. He tried to play it off as pain in his leg, but Peter could tell it was something else. Once they were in his room Peter shut the door and took Wade to the edge of the bed where he sat him down and knelt in front of him to remove his boots… Well, boot. His foot was fully formed now, scarred with wine colored valleys and white ridges. His leg looked nearly normal, missing a bit of girth. Judging by the frayed end of his severed suit leg, Peter guessed he had been in some sort of explosion. Wade noticed him looking. 

“When you detonate a bomb, be sure to base it on how far away you are and not how witty your last crack was.” Wade told him. “You tend to get exploded less.”

“Wade…” Peter began to unbuckle the suit top, pulling away torn and charred fabric. “Where have you been, Wade?” They locked eyes and Peter’s hands halted. The leather shirt was halfway down Wade’s shoulders. He felt as if he had crossed a line of some sort. Wade cleared his throat and tried to look away from Peter but their eyes remained trained on one another.

“Gwen went to get Lucy from school.” He said. 

“No, Lucy isn’t back in school yet, her doctor-”

“I don’t mean today!” Wade interrupted, frustrated already. He took a deep breath to steady himself. Being undressed in front of Peter was nerve wracking enough. “The day Lucy was taken. She got in trouble at school and so Gwen had to go and get her.”

“Yeah…” Peter said with a furrowed brow. “She did something to another kid and it lead to a classroom brawl.” Wade had to hold back a ‘That’s my girl!” 

“When I babysat she told me about this kid who was being a dick to her and I kind of suggested she pull a prank…” Wade admitted all in one breath. Peter tilted his head, confused. 

“So? She got a slap on the wrist. Besides, I never had any doubt as to where the itching powder came from.” Peter responded fondly. Wade pushed his hands away, shrugging the rest of the way out of his suit top and grabbing a pillow to hold over his bare chest. His shoulder was no longer an open wound but a dent, and his leg was as good as new. 

“If I hadn’t coached her on revenge, she would have been safely inside the school building and those thugs wouldn’t have gotten her. At least not the way they did. They could have killed her in that car wreck… They could have killed Gwen!” Wade exploded. “I may have gotten her back, but they wouldn’t have even had her if not for me.” His eyes were downcast. After a pregnant pause Peter used his fingertips to gently tilt Wade’s face upwards. He kissed him slowly but with urgency. Wade wasn’t sure what to make of it, but the feeling of Peter’s calloused hands against the rough skin of his face was enough to send blood southward. 

“Wade,” Peter pulled away for a brief moment. “They would have gotten her regardless. There were so many of them. They could have taken her from my apartment if they’d wanted to. I wouldn’t have stood a chance. The only reason they didn’t come to my apartment is because they thought you were here. You brought my baby back to me, Wade. Without you, I would never have seen my child again. I’m forever indebted to you, Wade Wilson.” He pushed Wade backwards until he was flat on his back, still clutching the pillow, and started to work the leather pants down his legs. The pillow blocked out Wade’s crotch, but Peter could tell he wasn’t wearing underwear and he felt a thrill shoot through him. 

Once Wade was undressed, Peter dropped his towel and went to the dresser to get himself a pair of boxers. He turned back to ask Wade if he wanted something comfy but Wade had sat up and was reaching out for him. Peter let Wade take him by the hand and lead him back to the bed. Wade directed Peter sit on the edge of the bed with his back to him. He grabbed the towel from the floor and used it to soak up some of the water still dripping in Peter’s hair. Once he was nice and towel dried, Wade ran his hand through Peter’s hair. It had gotten shaggy and was in need of a trim, but Wade loved the dark chestnut brown. He felt as if it had been ages since Peter dyed his hair, but his roots weren’t showing. This must be his natural color, Wade thought. And something told him Gwen would stop having photos of him taken, so it would get to stay this shade. 

Peter shuddered when Wade dragged his fingertips lightly down the back of his skull and over his neck, following the curve of his spine down to between his shoulder blades.

“So soft…” Wade said in a near whisper. Peter gave him a hum in response. So normal, he thought. Even with everything that had happened between them, it was as if a wall had broken down. Wade realized that it was his mask that had kept them from fully trusting one another. Something about Peter being able to see his eyes had strengthened the bond that had already been growing. Of course, saving his daughter from certain death probably didn’t hurt Peter’s affection for him. 

He continued tracing across Peter’s skin, moving across his ribcage and down to his waist. Wade loved the curve there. It was almost feminine, a sort of hourglass shape. The thick muscles banded there only added to the curve of him and Wade was suddenly thankful for the pillow still in his lap. He had taken his mask of for the first time, so he was already vulnerable enough without Peter knowing he was half hard just from touching him. 

“Wade.” Peter said, drawing out his name like it was a prayer. Wade opened his mouth to respond when Peter’s phone rang. It had been left in the living room, but they both heard it and recognized the ringtone. Wade’s muscles turned rigid and his hands paused in their path. Peter froze as well, turning to check Wade’s expression. It was the John that Peter had left him for the last time they had gotten this close to having sex. After a moment or two of silence Wade laughed harshly.

“You should get that.” He said with a little too much malice. “Richard won’t wait for you too long, Julia… Well, he probably would, now that I think about it. You’ve got an ass worth waiting for.” When Peter didn’t respond Wade began to sing, “I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more…” under his breath. Peter turned and looked at him. Before he could speak, Wade held up a hand.

“Look, kid. I know it’s just a job. Porn stars don’t love each other, you own your own body, blah blah blah. If you wanna go, then go. Sean is a big spender.”

“Wade…” Peter repeated, trying to turn and look at the man fully. Wade used his hands on Peter’s back to keep him from moving. 

“Peter, I’m not a flowery kind of guy. I make up for it by being a fantastic lay.” He joked. “I’ve got to compensate for my ragged good looks somehow. Get it? ‘Ragged’ instead of ‘rugged?’ That one was a thinker.” 

“I haven’t been in a relationship since Gwen.” Peter said, respecting Wade’s insecurities by keeping his back to him. “Since I started in this line of work. I don’t know how to handle it, Wade. But I do know that you’re more important than my work or any client. I won’t go. I want it to be just us tonight… I love you, Wade.” Wade’s hands fell away from Peter’s back in surprise. He cocked a bald eyebrow and tilted his head down at Peter as if to say “are you kidding?” Silence fell. The ringing had already stopped, but Wade’s brain was overcome by the shouting of the boxes. They demanded him to leave. They told him he had heard wrong, he was dreaming, he was hallucinating. His eyes moved across the boxes like rapid fire, taking in every hateful thing they said. Peter’s mouth started to move again, but he was so overwhelmed that he couldn’t focus. 

“Wade?” Peter’s voice broke through. 

“Enough!” Wade shouted. His hands came up to cover his face. Peter looked surprised. They sat quietly, Peter looking over his shoulder, until Wade dropped his hands and looked into Peter’s eyes with complete vulnerability. 

“Why would you say that, Petey?” He asked. Peter smiled at him shyly. 

“Because I do.” He responded easily. He took this opportunity to turn around and lean over Wade to embrace him. Their bare chests pressed together and Peter’s arms circled Wade’s broad shoulders. He laid his head on Wade, hair still wet, and squeezed him close. After some hesitation, Wade wrapped his arms gently around the small of Peter’s back, as if he were afraid Peter would disappear into a puff of smoke. 

“You’ve said that before.” Wade began. “’I was in love with you,’ is what you said. And again on the phone…”

“I am in love with you.” Peter said into the crook of Wade’s neck. Wade was hyper aware of what it must feel like to be pressed up against him. Like sandpaper or lying on a gravel road. He felt his chest get tight. He couldn’t imagine why anyone would love him, but in this moment he believed Peter without a doubt. He wanted to have this to look back on in the future. He wanted to allow himself to be happy here and now before he second guessed himself tomorrow. 

“Peter…” Wade said quietly. He had to force the words out. Each one felt like it was being pulled from his chest against his will. After a deep breath he continued in a small voice, “Make love to me.”

Peter blood turned hot and he could suddenly hear it in his ears. That hadn’t exactly been a declaration, but Wade was a cautious man in some respects. Peter pulled back from their hug and framed Wade’s face in his hands. After meaningful eye contact that Wade tried his best not to break, Peter kissed him. There was urgency about it. As if Peter were trying to prove to Wade that he loved him. Peter straddled Wade, his ass resting on the pillow in Wade’s lap. Wade reached up to support Peter’s weight with his hands spread wide over his back. They were both already nude and after that phone calls deflating effect, Wade could already feel himself coming back to life. 

Peter’s hands moved to the back of Wade’s head and down, traveling over whatever he could reach. The kiss opened up, became deeper, until Wade could feel the slick drag of Peter’s tongue across his. Every inch of skin was pressed together; their hands, their chests, their mouths. Wade heard himself moan and was overcome by a small rush of embarrassment. That went away as soon and he felt Peter’s cock against his stomach. Peter responded with a gasp and sank his teeth into Wade’s lower lip. For a moment Wade feared he would lose consciousness with so much blood traveling to his groin in such a small amount of time. 

Peter leaned his weight onto Wade and Wade took it as a request to lie back. He complied, breaking the kiss and staring up at Peter in all his nude glory as he swept the pillow out of the way and took a ravenous look at Wade’s form. They’d had sex before, but not like this. Not when Wade was totally bare and laid out for Peter to look at or touch as he pleased. 

Peter wrapped his hand around Wade’s growing erection loosely and gave a few small strokes. Wade’s back arched and he hissed at the feeling. It was so good, but he was having trouble letting go. He grabbed Peter by the elbow and dragged him down to lay on his back beside him. Peter immediately reclaimed the hold on his cock when he was settled and Wade returned the favor. They both moaned into it and Peter twisted himself to get his lips back to Wade’s. They were both fully hard by then and moaning into each other. 

Wade used his free hand to tug at one of Peter’s nipples and that earned him a small gasp. He ran his hand all over Peter, as much as he could reach. He felt his pecs and his abs, loving how compact the muscle was. It was nothing like his own bulk. If he had one thing to thank Weapon X and his military past for, it would be the muscular cut of his body. He was all ridges and dips and Peter was very smooth and lean. He maintained his grip on Peer’s dick and started stroking him a bit faster. Their kisses grew in urgency until Peter suddenly pulled back with a groan. 

“Bored already?” Wade asked, only halfway joking. 

“Not at all.” Peter shot back with a smirk. “I just don’t want to come like this.” He rose up onto his knees, leaning over Wade to reach into his bedside table. Wade couldn’t resist wetting his fingers quickly in his mouth and reaching around Peter to tease his hole. Peter hissed at the stimulation and hesitated in his search for the lube. Wade spread him with one hand and dipped one fingertip inside the tight ring of muscle, listening to the choking moans Peter was making. He didn’t get too far before Peter returned to his search and found the bottle. He moved back to his side of the bed and Wade ignored his disappointment at the lack of contact. Instead he turned himself over to lie on his stomach, craning to watch Peter pour the lube onto his palm and stroke himself with his slick hand. 

“No.” Peter said. His half-lidded eyes meeting Wade’s. “Turn back over. I want to see your face.” He emptied more lube onto his fingers and waited for Wade to move back onto his back. 

“You don’t, Petey, I promise.” Wade responded. Peter raised his eyebrows. He moved his lubed up fingers to Wade’s ass, pressing in the tip of one finger and drinking in the long groan it drew from Wade. 

“I can prep you like this, but I want to look at you while I’m inside of you.” Peter said. Wade had trouble listening as Peter’s long, slender finger found his prostate in a matter of seconds. Peter withdrew that finger and replaced it with two. “Deal?” Peter asked. Wade bucked his hips back against Peter’s fingers, nodding frantically. If Peter could keep it up while looking at him, then that was okay with Wade. 

The healing factor was Wade’s best friend when it came to sex. It made him easy to prep and it cut his refractory period down to under five minutes. Still, Peter was careful with how he stretched him. He scissored his fingers open in a way that had Wade squirming for more, and he brushed his prostate every so often to make sure the pleasure outweighed the slight discomfort. At first Wade thought he was just being gentle, but after a while of panting and moaning into the pillow he realized that Peter was just giving him time to adjust to being vulnerable. 

“Peter…” He panted. “Just fuck me already!” 

“I thought you wanted to make love?” Peter asked in a slightly teasing voice.

“Whatever gets you in my ass quicker.” Wade responded. “Just please, please!”

Peter didn’t need to be told twice. With strength disproportionate to his thin body, Peter took hold of Wade by the hips and flipped him onto his back. Wade was impressed by this show of masculinity, though if he were being honest he had twisted to help a bit. 

He expected Peter to take him fast and hard from the way they were both flushed and out of breath and practically whining for it. But instead of stuffing him full, Peter leaned over Wade to press small kisses to his collarbone where it had been destroyed earlier in the day. Wade felt the tingle of new flesh prickling with goose bumps and bucked his hips up to rut their cocks together. He was beyond pleased to feel the hot drip of pre-cum from Peter’s swollen head onto his own shaft. Peter was just as ready as he was. But he continued to kiss along Wade’s chest, down to one nipple. He sucked at the skin there, forcing the bud to turn hard before moving to the other.

“Fuck, Petey!” Wade grunted. “You’re going to kill me before we even get started.”

“I think we’re well past ‘started.’”

“When did you get such a snarky little mouth?” Wade asked. “I bet it’s harder to tease when your mouth is being fu- uh! Uhh! Oh, fuck!” Peter had moved to line himself up with Wade’s entrance and pushed just the head inside. Wade saw stars. That girth! It was almost too much for a moment, but Peter’s mouth recaptured one of his nipples and he relaxed as Peter pushed in further. He moved at a torturous pace, inch by slow and steady inch until he was fully seated. Wade’s mouth hung open as if he was shouting, but for once in his life, no sound came out. He found that his fingers were digging into Peter’s shoulders like great vices and Peter’s head was bowed from the pleasure of it all.   
“Wade.” He breathed, rocking his hips slowly out and back in just a fraction of an inch. They were both sweating, chests heaving. Wade’s thighs were wrapped around Peter’s waist with his heels rested just shy of his ass. 

“Oh, fuck, baby boy…” Wade said through his teeth. “Move, please. You have to move!” He was rewarded with another micro thrust and Wade couldn’t help the way his body writhed. Peter’s pupils were blown, just a ring of chocolate brown around an expanse of black, and just when Wade was ready to break down and actually beg to be fucked, Peter started to move. 

It was almost artistic. He rolled his entire body with each thrust. Their chests pressed flush, trapping Wade’s dick in between their bellies, and then Peter was so deep inside that Wade was afraid his eyes had rolled back in his head. He could no longer articulate. They moved in tandem for a while, gasping out each other’s names and trading sloppy kisses on the neck or mouth or chest. Peter was embarrassed by how close he was and so he sat back on his knees to take hold of Wade’s dick. He could thrust even deeper this way and Wade responded to that with a series of curses that had Peter’s lips curling into a sadistic smile.

Wade’s hands fisted the sheets beneath them and he started thrusting back against Peter. Peter gave a choked off sound at that. Something about the level of desire paired with how powerful each thrust was had him nearly coming apart. But he held on. He wanted them to finish together. He pumped Wade’s cock in time with their undulation and Wade’s hips increased their rhythm. 

“Come for me, Wade.” Peter said, his throat raw. “I want to watch you come undone, love.” And Wade obeyed. His back arched up off the mattress and Peter struggled to keep hold of him as his body thrashed in orgasm. Cum shot up between the two of them; enough to run down Peter’s knuckles and splash against both of their stomachs. 

The moment he finished, Wade’s body clamped down around peter, eliciting a long and drawn out moan from his lips. He continued thrusting into the tight heat of Wade until he hit his peak as well and Wade felt the warm rush of cum inside himself. 

“I love you, Wade.” Peter panted. 

“I… I love you too, baby boy.” Wade responded. They stayed joined like that for some time, still holding one another and exchanging the occasional kiss until Peter felt Wade’s legs start to quiver. He reluctantly pulled out with a small grunt and Wade could feel the cum start working its way back out. It had been too long since he had trusted a partner enough to let them top, this was almost a new feeling to him. He sat up slowly, feeling the ache of tight muscles in his back, and climbed off the bed and to his feet. 

“Shower?” He asked. Peter chuckled. 

“I’ll have to drain the tub first. You feeling okay?”

“Are you asking if my feelings are hurt or my asshole?” Wade shot back. 

“Both, now that I think about it.” Peter said, standing and leaning against his lover’s chest. 

“Well, on a scale of one to there-is-cancer-constantly-eating-most-of-my-body, I would say I feel pretty damn good.” Wade said, carding his fingers through Peter’s hair. “And as for my feelings… Give it a minute. I think you fucked the boxes into submission for now, but they’ll be back later to tell me why I should feel like shit about what just happened.”

“You should never feel bad about what we just did, Wade.” Peter sighed with his face pressed against Wade’s collar bone. “When they come back, let me know. Maybe I can fuck them back into submission.” Wade gave a low growl and grabbed Peter around the ribs, drawing out a laugh. 

“Oh!” He said. “I think I hear them now! Hurry, Petey, give me that cure-all of a cock!” Peter laughed and Wade hoisted him up over his shoulder. “I have to get this lube off my ass cheeks. I feel like Arnold Schwarzenegger back in his body building days.” He started off down the hallway. 

O O O O

Peter was pleasantly surprised to find Wade’s enormous arm swung over his chest when he awoke. Who sleeps on their stomach? He thought. Wade gave a short snore. Looks like even Weapon X couldn’t fix that deviated septum. Peter grabbed his arm and snuggled under it, inching his body so that their sides pressed flush. He was in his boxers, but Wade had pulled on his usual long pants and long sleeves when they had finished their shower. Peter closed his eyes and remembered what it felt like to have those rough hands rub soap all over his body. Wade seriously needed to get on board and realize the sexual advantages to his condition. Peter drifted back off, allowing five more minutes of bliss before he had to meet Gwen. 

Wade spent the day out of the house after Peter left for lunch with Gwen and Lucy. It went much smoother than he could have ever dreamed. Gwen had drawn up a new custody agreement and they had gone over it together. Lucy was in a fantastic mood at having her mother and father in the same room without yelling. After lunch Gwen let Peter have Lucy for the afternoon with the promise to pick her up later that night. 

Wade’s excuse to Peter was flimsy at best and Peter didn’t ask if it he was out on a job or not. Instead, Peter stayed at home all day, playing with Lucy and enjoying his time off. Lucy was well adjusted after her trauma. Gwen had put her in therapy once a week so that she could talk to someone about what happened and how she felt. Both Gwen and the doctor thought she was handling things fantastically. 

After breakfast, Peter and Lucy did yoga together. He helped her work on her dream journal and he was surprised to see a familiar red and black suit drawn in crayon on the page. He read the entry again. There was no mention of Wade, just a “hero.” 

“Tell me the story again, Lucy. About your dream? I want to make sure I got it right.” He lied. Lucy perked up, her crayon pausing in its unpredictable path. 

“Okay, so I was in a tree.” She began. She took a deep breath, trying to find the words. “So, in the tree is me and a lot of cats. The tree is very big and very tall off the ground, which was scary. Me and the cats were yelling for somebody to help us, but nobody knew what to do. Someone called some fire fighters and they came with their big red truck, but they said ‘that is too many cats!’ and went home. So, we kept on yelling until finally a hero came swooping out of the sky! And he saved me and put me on the ground. Then he flew back up and started to bring me the cats until I was holding so many cats I couldn’t see him anymore. When I put them all down, he was gone.”

“Is this the hero?” Peter asked. Lucy nodded, indicating the crude drawing of Wade. Peter felt pride surge up in his chest. It was so silly, but having Lucy idolize his boyfriend was making him giddy. She saw him as a hero. He made her feel safe.

O O O

Zip lines were a bitch to install, Wade thought. 

He had just left Peter’s apartment when Peter went to pick up Lucy, and he was regretting the entire plan. For starters the kind of equipment it took to shoot a thick enough wire to slide across was very heavy. Secondly, Wade hadn’t been able to find a close building that was taller than Stark Tower, so it would be a long and grueling experience to get there. He shrugged. At least he could have fun on the way back. That was assuming Stark let him leave with all of his limbs. 

Once the wire was in place on the roof of Stark Industries, Wade secured it to the building he currently stood on. He started the slow climb upward, moving hand over hand like a child on monkey bars. He knew Stark’s AI would detect him way before he got there, but he was counting on JARVIS not telling the man of the house. In the past when he had interacted with JARVIS he noticed that the disembodied voice was a little selective about what he told Stark and when he told it to him. 

‘Why not walk through the front door?’ White asked. Wade removed one hand from the wire to bat at the box. 

‘Because last time we were here, Stark told us he would invent a robot to follow us around and rip our balls off each time they grew back.’ Yellow responded.

“And we believed him.” Wade huffed. Some part of him knew Stark wouldn’t really devote that much time and effort to create a robot just to emasculate him repeatedly, but the fact that Wade knew he was capable of it was enough to put him on edge. “Plus, there are big beefy dudes in the lobby with pictures of me pinned up with ‘Do not allow access under any circumstances’ written on them. And Stark doesn’t tend to like hiring cleaning crews to get the blood out of his foyer and the entrails off the ceiling fans.” 

‘Like party streamers!’ White practically shouted. Wade laughed, arms grazing his ears as he moved them, one over the other. He was a third of the way across and his arms were screaming. His muscular body hung heavily from his gloved grip and he started to worry that he would dislocate his shoulders, but he moved on.   
Stark would listen, right? He had to. As much as his arms burned, Wade kept moving. This was about Peter and he could do anything for his baby boy. In his pack was a folder. Getting that had taken a couple of hours itself. He had to get this in front of Stark’s eyes and the rest would fall into place. 

O O O

Before Peter could say anything to Lucy about her drawing there was a knock at the door. He left Lucy to her coloring and went to answer it. When he swung the door open he was stunned. Three men stood in his hallway, two of which he recognized immediately. 

“Peter Parker?” One of them asked. 

“Yes…?” Peter responded. 

“Hi, I’m Tony Stark, you may know me as Iron Man?” Peter nodded, in a daze. “I have with me, Dr. Banner and this lovely security guard that everyone insists I have follow me around. Dr. Banner and I wanted to discuss your current employment. The guard is here because Wade Wilson is believed to live here, and the only things scarier than his mouth are his guns.” He indicated the guard’s hip holster. 

“Okay… Employment?” Peter asked. Was Iron Man really here to slut shame him?

“We would like to offer you an employment opportunity.” Dr. Banner clarified, extending a hand to shake. Peter took it hesitantly. Had he fallen and hit his head? 

“Why?” He asked. 

“Some of your work from your college days came across my desk recently. Let’s just say a mauled-looking birdy left them there.” Tony answered. “Anyway, it was all very stunning. I saw where you were offered the internship with Oscorp and you turned it down. A mind like yours should be published by now.” 

“I, um… I had a daughter. I couldn’t accept an unpaid internship.” Peter said. Stark’s eyes flickered to Lucy who was just visible through the door and then back to Peter, unfazed. Bruce Banner, however, leaned around and smiled at her. She waved and he waved back. 

“Well, we got in touch with Oscorp.” Bruce said. “Turns out, they have a position open for an intern. We took the liberty of submitting an application for you.”

“You what?!” Peter asked.

“It is still unpaid.” Tony said. 

“But! There is a paid position available with Stark enterprises. It would be a lot of clerical work for the moment, but the pay is fantastic, and the hours are relaxed enough for you to work for us and for Oscorp.” Bruce told him with a smile. 

“Once you have a little lab experience, we can talk about moving you up the ranks. My company doesn’t do on the job training like Oscorp does, so this is the best of both worlds.” Tony added. “So, you have three days to respond, and we hope to see you next week. Any questions?” 

“I’ll take it.” Peter blurted out. “I’ll take both positions.” Tony and Bruce shared a smile.

“There’s nothing you want to know?” Bruce asked. 

“Are you the Hulk?” Peter said dumbly. The two men in his doorway laughed, but Peter was still too star struck. He had an idea of who set this in motion, but he had no proof. And aside from that, Tony Stark liked his work! This was incredible! They said their goodbyes with plans to meet up at a later date and get Peter started, and Peter shut the door. He could quit his current job and move onto his real dreams now… It was surreal. Should he start calling off clients now? Or should he wait until he had discussed pay?   
One thing he knew for sure, Wade was getting the lay of his life when he returned home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There should only be one more chapter after this unless I start to get long winded like I do sometimes. Keep commenting and showing the love.


	12. Gifts and Gratification

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wade gives Peter a gift and Peter shows his gratitude.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! I am not dead. I have had an awful year, though and I've had to put all of my fun past times on hold to try and get a grip on my life. I think about this story a lot and the fact that I've had each chapter mapped out in my head since that initial first chapter. I am going to finish it, and I thank you all for your patience.

An entire house. 

Wade had bought an entire house for Peter and Lucy that was close enough to Gwen that they could walk there. There was a park around the corner and the area was amazing. Peter was glad that the house wasn’t obscenely huge, but instead very generous in size. Lucy had a larger room than before and her own bathroom. Peter’s room was even larger and had built in bookshelves and a small gas fireplace, according to Wade’s rambling on the way there. The master bathroom had a jacuzzi tub, his and hers sinks, and a small stone bench in the shower. Peter could imagine all the ways that could come in handy. 

The job offer made to Peter by Iron Man himself seemed fishy at first, but he knew Wade had his best interest at heart. Once he had been assured that the offers were due to his science and intellect and not Wade swinging his swords around, Peter was beside himself with excitement. 

It was his fourth day on the job and he was on break. Gwen was with Lucy, so he decided to take a more in-depth tour of the facilities in his free time. It was crazy to think that he, Peter Parker was now a part of something so large as Oscorp. In the handful of days he had worked there he had already made leaps and bounds on stalled projects that other scientists asked him to take a glance at. He brought home a bottle of bioluminescent serum and used it to paint designs on Lucy’s walls in the new house. 

Just thinking of the new house sent a spark up his spine. He and Wade had been slowly conquering the place. That first day, Lucy had been with them. The moving company Wade hired was carrying in the last few pieces and Lucy had shot off like a rocket toward her new room. 

“Be careful!” Wade called after her, but she was gone. The two men laughed together at the rambunctious child and shared a shy glance. 

“Well…” Wade began. 

“Yeah…” Peter nodded. He turned to face his boyfriend, thrilled to call him that, and took in the rugged features under the heavy layers of scars. Wade squirmed a bit. He had been wearing the mask less and less, but Peter was still obsessed on the days he didn’t. 

“You like it?” Wade asked. Peter leaned up to his toes to place a small kiss on Wade’s lips, then gave a coy smile.

“I don’t know.” He said. “I’ve only seen the foyer so far.” Wade laughed and leaned over to scoop the man up bridal style. 

“Then lets get a move on. Save the bedroom for last?” He kissed Peter again, longer this time, deeper. 

“Blech!” Came from the doorway and the two men broke apart with matching embarrassed grins. Lucy’s face was twisted in disgust. “Come on Daddy and Way! I wanna see the house!” 

“I thought you were.” Wade said, gently placing Peter on his feet. Peter brushed himself off, trying to reclaim some dignity.

“I got lost.” She said. Wade cocked a disbelieving eyebrow and Lucy dropped her shoulders. “Okay… I got scared.” Wade crossed the room in a few powerful steps and picked her up under the arms like she weighed nothing. 

“Then lets go together and make sure there’s nothing scary in here.”

“What if there is, Way?” Lucy asked. 

“Baby Girl, you have to know by now that me and your daddy will protect you from anything in the world.” He hugged her before flipping her so that she landed on his back. Peter jumped from across the room. Wade was so casual with the way he lifted Lucy sometimes that Peter forgot to trust him not to drop her. 

Once Lucy was tired out from running around the new house Wade took her to her new room and tucked her in for a nap. He was glad that she had tuckered out because he had been considering sneaking her cough syrup to gain some alone time with his man. … Not that he would really do that. 

As soon as she was out, whale song playing softly from behind the cracked door, Wade turned on Peter and a primal thrill shot through Peter like he had never felt before. He briefly considered the possibility of a long life with Wade and whether or not he would always feel this strongly about the potential of sex with him. The look on Wade’s face, those slightly narrowed eyes and the forward set of his bottom jaw as he regarded Peter’s slim frame, it was so animalistic and intensely sexual that Peter could hardly stand without wobbling. The lack of mask was his downfall since he couldn’t resist closing the short distance between their bodies to press his chest to Wade’s and run his fingers across that strong, defined jaw. 

“How about we finish the tour?” Wade asked, doing his best not to turn away from Peter’s touch. 

“There’s more?” Peter asked incredulously. “We’ve already seen so much! What could possibly be left?” He let out a small squeak when Wade leaned him back and kissed him hard.

“We have yet to see the master bedroom, my love.” Wade growled, lips pressed to Peter’s neck. Peter basically turned to mush, thankful for the strong arms wrapped around his waist to support him. Wade kissed him again and Peter wrapped his fingers up in his shirt to pull him impossibly closer. When they broke apart, breathlessly, Peter tried to go right back in but Wade leaned out of reach, eliciting a whine from his boyfriend. 

“Let’s go.” Wade growled. He started off down the hallway to the last remaining door in the house. Their fingers interlocked, Wade pushed the door open to reveal the most beautiful bedroom Peter had ever seen. It was large and had a canopy bed in the center with beautiful fabric draped around it. The floors were hard wood like the rest of the house, so the center was taken up by a large red rug. On top of buying the house, Wade had also thought about furniture, which surprised Peter to think of. The Merc with the mouth, the unhinged psycho murderer that all of S.H.I.E.L.D was terrified of, had hired an interior decorator and made some truly beautiful choices for the place. 

“Bed or shower?” Wade asked. Peter considered it. There were perks to both options; the little stone bench in the shower that he knew would serve as a foothold for Wade as he fucked him against the tiles, and the soft sanctuary of the canopy that would make them feel like they were the only two people left on earth. They had all the time in the world to explore, but he wanted his man right then and there. 

“Bed.” He said with conviction, pulling his shirt off easily and tossing it to the floor. He looked over his shoulder at Wade who never seemed to tire of seeing his boyfriend undress before he parted the fabric and climbed into bed. Wade was much less graceful and much more clothed when he arrived, but Peter was soon to remedy at least one of those things. He laid down on his back and smiled as Wade climbed over him, arms boxing Peter’s shoulders in. 

“I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of looking at you.” Peter said softly. Wade’s skin flushed red, but he managed not to pull away or cover himself. Peter made a mental note to stop pointing out his naked face as often, even if he meant it in a positive way, and to let Wade relax a bit more. 

“Top or bottom?” Wade asked. Peter considered this for a moment before a wicked grin split his face. 

“Yes.” He responded. Wade smiled at the parallel and leaned in quickly to capture Peter’s lips. Their bodies were pressed together from head to toe, feeling the sinewy muscle of one another as they stretched and moved as one. Hands roamed over sides, abdominals, jaw lines, and waist bands. Little moans escaped each of them when particular spots were found. They pulled apart, panting and pressed their foreheads together, unable to be apart for too long even just to catch their breath. 

Peter pulled at the hem of Wade’s shirt and after a few moments of hesitation Wade sat up enough to allow Peter to remove it. He leaned back down right away, not giving Peter enough time to see him too closely, and closed his mouth over one of Peter’s hard nipples. Peter arched up off the bed, whining at the contact, in want of more. His hands rested on Wade’s shoulder, and Wade sat back to look at him, pupils blown, when he hesitated. 

“What’s that?” Wade asked, sitting back on his heels and dragging Peter’s left wrist up with him. Peter propped up on his remaining elbow. 

“Oh,” He said, seeing what Wade was talking about. “Hazards of the job, I guess.” Wade turned his wrist to the side to get a better look. It was a bruise about the size of a dime, raised and red in the middle with two small pin pricks in the center, and then ringed in blue. It looked infected and was radiating heat. Wade was surprised he hadn’t noticed it earlier, but Peter almost always wore long sleeves in the current weather. 

“Wade do you mean?” Wade asked. Peter huffed, obviously not happy with the change in pace or subject. 

“I got lost this morning and wound up in the spider sanctuary.” Peter clarified. 

“Spider sanctuary?!”

“Yeah. It’s this enormous room that’s just floor to ceiling spiderwebs.” Peter went on. “There’s some experiment going on with the silk they produce and the potential of strengthening it into building materials or fabrics. I walked in, realized where I was, and before I could make it back out through the sanitation chamber one of the little bastards bit me.” Wade ran a finger over the wound and Peter winced. 

“You’re a stronger man than me.” Wade said, chuckling. “I would have screamed like a little girl and torched the whole damn room.” Peter shrugged, removing his wrist from Wade’s grip and placing his hands on his boyfriend’s shoulders. 

“They don’t really bother me.” He said. Before Wade could respond, Peter flipped them so that Wade lay on his back, hands braced on Peter’s hips. For a moment they just breathed, Peter’s ass grinding against Wade’s crotch in agonizingly slow circles. When neither man could take it anymore, Peter finally let his full weight rest on Wade. 

“Lube?” He asked frankly. 

“Bedside table.” Wade told him. He really had thought of everything. Peter unbuckled his own belt, pulling his pants down to his knees and exposing his royal blue boxer briefs that could hardly contain his erection. Wade was close to drooling. When Peter hopped off of him to retrieve the lube and remove the rest of his clothes, Wade did the same. It wasn’t the first time he had gotten totally naked for Peter, but it was the first time in the daylight with the lights on. He tried not to look at himself, the scarred ridges and valleys of his skin a constant source of self-hatred, but Peter didn’t hesitate. He climbed back onto the bed, naked and ethereal, and settled between Wade’s legs. 

“Fuck, you’re big.” Peter said. Wade couldn’t help the itching feeling in the back his skull that said Peter was only saying that to build him up, but he tried to squash it. Peter leaned back on his heels and licked up Wade’s length without warning. Wade clapped a hand over his mouth to keep from waking Lucy and when he looked back down Peter may as well have grown horns based on his sinful expression. 

Wade laid back, letting his head rest on the abundance of pillows behind himself while Peter went to work. He started out licking from base to tip without touching him and when that reached its peak frustration he wrapped his hand around the base, lifting Wade’s cock to his lips and taking in all that he could. The pressure of Peter’s mouth and tongue were exquisite and Wade knew he wouldn’t last long if he let this continue. Still, he made no move to stop him. 

Propping up on his elbows, Wade watched as Peter’s head bobbed up and down and he knitted his fingers in his hair. That always seemed to turn Peter on. The pressure in his belly built steadily, Peter’s pace increasing bit by bit until he couldn’t take it anymore. 

“Peter,” Wade breathed. “I’m gonna-” Peter pulled off of him for a second to smile. 

“Then come.” He said, dipping back down to take Wade deep into his mouth and throat. And Wade did come. Hard. He was always surprised when Peter swallowed around him so easily. His gag reflex must have been nonexistent, he thought. When he felt himself empty and Peter had effectively cleaned him off, he flopped back down onto his back.

“Fuck, you’re good at that.” He said, staring up at the ceiling. 

“Practice makes perfect.” Peter joked, earning a playful glare from Wade. 

“You know, you don’t have to stop seeing your johns.” Wade offered for what had to be the fifteenth time in a week. “I know it was good money. And I’m not jealous of you clients-”

“Wade, Wade!” Peter interrupted, laughing. “I know, baby. I quit because I wanted to. I have an amazing job with a steady income in the field of my choice. I was only doing all that to pay the bills.” He climbed over Wade to lean down and give him a quick kiss on the lips between Wade’s panting breaths. “I quit because I wanted to… now, do you think you’re ready for me?” He asked, heavy cock resting on Wade’s belly next to his own. Wade gulped but managed a nod. He could already feel himself getting hard; one of the many perks of a healing factor as thorough as his. 

Peter took the small bottle of lube he had retrieved earlier and used it to slick himself up. Once that was done, he coated his fingers in it and tossed the bottle to the side. Wade’s breath hitched in his throat as Peter prodded at his entrance. He took a deep breath to relax and felt Peter slip inside. He couldn’t tell if it was one finger or two, but it was incredible either way. He loved when Peter fucked him like this. He couldn’t believe how long it had taken to get to this point either. If his past self had any idea how fantastic it felt to be stretched open by the dexterous, scientific hands of Peter Parker, he would have taken his mask off and put it down the garbage disposal on the spot. 

He was getting impatient, though appreciative of how thorough Peter wanted to be. He started to thrust his hips forward, taking as much as he could in and Peter chuckled. 

“Always so fucking impatient.” Peter said in a low voice. Wade melted at the sound. Peter withdrew his fingers and lined himself up. “Don’t worry, baby. I’ll always give you what you want.” Wade’s hands gripped the sheets tight as Peter bottomed out on the first push. “It seems I'm not the only one with a little practice.” Peter joked, rocking very slightly back and forth. Wade’s hands abandoned the sheets and shot up to Peter’s surprisingly thick biceps for support. He whined, unable to express what he wanted for fear of waking Lucy if he opened his mouth. 

“Please.” He croaked. Peter obeyed, pulling his hips back further to fuck him harder, and Wade saw stars. His dick was trapped between the two of them and the friction of Peter’s stomach was about to send him over edge for the second time that day. Peter had to know this, since he kept his body low. It seemed like neither of them would last very long judging by the look on Peter’s face and the steadily increasing rate of his pace. 

“Oh, Wade…” Peter said into the crook of his neck. For once, Wade didn’t care about his skin. He knew Peter was feeling the texture against every inch of contact their bodies made, but the fact that he was so full made it impossible to focus on. Wade wrapped his legs around Peter’s waist, angling himself so that his prostate was available, and held on for dear life. 

“Fuck me!” He demanded, and Peter did. The speed with which he moved could be called violent at that point, the sound of wet skin slapping skin filling the room. They were drenched in sweat and gripping one another tighter than ever before. 

“You want to come?” Peter asked in that deliciously domineering voice that made Wade’s untouched cock twitch in excitement. 

“Yes! Please, baby boy.” He cried out. 

“Then… come!” Peter grunted as he adjusted himself to free one hand and wrap it around Wade’s dick. He stroked him in rhythm to his thrusts so that Wade could hardly tell what was going on anymore. It only took a few strokes before Wade was tensing up and exploding, cum dripping down Peter’s fist onto Wade’s stomach. The sight was so arousing that Peter didn’t last too much longer after that. He continued to fuck into Wade until he was spent and exhausted and he collapsed onto Wade’s chest. 

“That was… hot.” Peter said and Wade nodded. 

“I can’t wait to do it again… and again, and again.” Wade slurred in his tiredness. 

“Your refractory period is insane.” Peter said, laughing. Wade smiled. 

“It’s met its match with you.” He said. “Even my healing factor can’t keep up with your sexual appetite.” He sighed as Peter pulled out, feeling small amount of semen escape onto the sheets. He would have to invest in a maid, he thought. 

“Shower?” Peter asked, grinning devilishly. 

“Entire armies have plotted to kill me and every attempt failed…” Wade said, stealing a kiss. “I think you just might be the one to succeed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is basically the end. I'm working on a small, fluffy epilogue that just kind of sums up the story and shows you how everyone moves on and progresses in life. Thank you all for sticking with me all this time.


	13. Endings and Epilogues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A quick epilogue to sum things up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go... The final chapter. Enjoy!

The sun was hot, and Wade could feel his skin baking in it. One of the voices in his head took the time to tell him that was probably because he’s usually covered head to toe and he wasn’t sizzling like bacon in reality, but he chose to blame global warming anyway. Peter’s hand in his was cool, so it may have been the nerves. He smiled when Peter glanced over at him reassuringly. He was just glad to be up and walking around after sitting in those stiff, plastic chairs for an hour. 

Through the dense crowd he could see Lucy’s little blonde head bobbing toward them. She looked like an angel, Wade thought. Clearly the prettiest of the other little gremlins in her class. Though Peter had asked him to stop calling them that. She wore a very tiny graduation cap and gown and held a bedazzled diploma she had made herself for this event. She waved the glitter covered mess over her head at them. 

Wade smiled at her, throwing up a bare hand to wave back. He was aware of the pitying looks he was getting from the parents around them, but he would be damned if he missed Lucy’s Kindergarten graduation for fear of being gawked at. He and Peter wore similar gray suits, the only real difference being Wade’s lack of tie. Gwen wore a fitted black dress that showed the contours of her body and made it obvious why Peter had fallen for her in the first place, intellect aside. In her hand was a small camcorder that she could hardly hold up to her eye for all her crying. He would never admit it, but Wade had nearly cried too when Lucy’s name was announced. The logical side of him knew how stupid this milestone was in her life and he hoped he didn’t have to come to one of these events every time Lucy finished a grade, but he was so proud of her regardless. 

Lucy reached them and jumped, trusting Wade to lunge forward and catch her before she crashed to the ground. 

“Look!” She exclaimed, shoving her diploma in Wade’s face and leaving a streak of glitter across his chin that would likely never wash off. Peter took the outstretched document from her and opened it so that Gwen could get it on camera. Wade smiled at the carefully horrible handwriting in the center of the page. It read, ‘Lucy May Parker.’ 

“I’m so proud of you, sweetheart!” Gwen said, taking Lucy from Wade to squeeze her to within an inch of her life. Wade took that opportunity to steal the camera and focus it on Gwen and Lucy. 

“Look at the camera!” He said, heart nearly bursting when Lucy smiled over Gwen’s shoulder at him. Gwen laughed and hugged her even harder, making Lucy give an exaggerated grunt of faux pain. “Beautiful.” He said, and Lucy stuck out her tongue. 

“Peter, get in here.” Gwen said, putting her hand on top of Lucy’s head to try and see over her. Wade swung around, getting Peter ion the frame now. He was chatting with an older woman who was probably Lucy’s teacher and pulling nervously at his sleeves. 

So many changes had occurred since that first day in the new house, he thought. For one, Oscorp had turned out to be owned by an evil jackass, hell-bent on destroying Peter. 

Well, hell-bent on destroying Spiderman… Who was also Peter. 

A lot had changed. 

That spider bite on Peter’s wrist had turned out to be less than innocent, and the experiment dealing with the strength of spiderwebs was a cover for genetic experiments that were probably enormously illegal. Wade was the first to catch on when Peter started accidentally sticking to doorknobs and stopped needing his contact lenses. It was nice not to be the only freak in the house anymore. Peter had embraced it about as well as he could, fighting to keep his job with Stark Industries without outing himself as the masked vigilante all of New York was buzzing about. He made himself web shooters and a suit that Wade had a few copyright questions about, and he kept it all from Gwen and Lucy. 

Wade almost never wore his mask at home anymore or when he went out with his family which made Peter ecstatic and Lucy called “getting comfortability.” He hadn’t stopped going out on hits either, he had just gotten better about his research into the victims as well as the clients. After all, if he hadn’t known Gwen at the time, he might’ve taken that hit all those months ago and played into Beetles plan. 

But he hadn’t. 

So, now he stood on the front lawn of Lucy’s school watching her try to braid her mother’s hair while Gwen chatted with another mom and her father talked to her teacher, fiddling with his hidden webshooters he hadn’t quite gotten used to wearing. 

Life was good, he thought. Good and complicated. 

“Wade!” Peter said, snapping him out of his thoughts. 

“Yeah?” He asked, approaching him. 

“I was just telling Ms. Freeman here about your work.” He gave Wade a pointed look and Wade chuckled. Peter still worried that he would slip up and reveal his real occupation instead of sticking with their predetermined cover story. 

“Oh, my work?” Wade asked, cutting his eyes quickly at Peter to share in the joke. “How boring. Don’t let him talk your ear off about uninteresting things. I’m serious, mention ‘National Geographic’ and you may actually die before he stops talking.” The woman smiled kindly at him and Wade smiled back. He couldn’t care less if she pitied him. After all, the official story was that he was a burn victim, so the pity was almost required.

“Nice to meet you, mister…?” She extended her hand and he took it, still smiling. 

“Oh!” Peter said. “Sorry. This is Wade Wilson, my fiancé.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I seriously can't believe it's done... What started as a one-shot turned into a thirteen chapter monster that I haven't been able to get out of my head since it began. I am beyond proud of this story and the responses I've gotten to it. You've all been great. And who knows, maybe I'll visit this story again.

**Author's Note:**

> More to come. This is just to set the scene.


End file.
